NEW Bridge Construction Update: Asphalt paving of King Street POSTPONED
Looking into town from the deck of the bridge
Click for a live view of the bridge from our webcam in Erik Nicolaysen’s 2nd floor window.
Monday, August 16, 2010
by Christine Yeres
The scraping (called “milling”) and resurfacing of King Street from Starbuck’s intersection up to Bedford Road that was scheduled to begin tonight has been postponed. The milling company canceled. The job might be rescheduled for the week beginning August 23.
As it has done on the Quaker Road side of the bridge, the milling company will scrape up the top 1.5 inches of asphalt and fill in any cracks in the concrete base below before laying new asphalt, since old, deep cracks in the concrete cause new surface cracks as the concrete expands and contracts due to changes in temperature.
The day time work on Quaker Road last week caused some traffic delays, but work on King Street will take place at night to spare businesses the disruption. The segment of South Greeley between the triangle and Starbucks will not be done, since there’s more tearing up to do there first.
Once asphalt paving is done on the King Street side, traffic will be changed over to the new south lane of the bridge and demolition will begin on the north side. Crews will double for demolition, during which time the temporary pedestrian walkway will remain in place. Once the old lane is removed, workers will pour concrete footings. There is a chance the surface of the north lane could be poured before winter. All depends on the weather.
This week, stone masons continue on the south wall of the bridge, on both the in-side and the out-side of the wall.
I was happy to hear that King Street will be resurfaced as part of the Bridge project. It is also nice to read that the contractor will be milling down the existing road surface prior to installing new blacktop in lieu of repaving on top of the existing road surface.
The existing roadway surface is level with and even higher than the roadway in most places.
I would hope that the town’s highway department has some supervisory role in this work to ensure enough of the existing multiple layers of blacktop are taken off King street to restore a proper height curb to the roadway.
Having a proper curb would:
1. Keep storm water and melting snow in the gutter instead of flooding/icing over sidewalks and creating unsightly eroding of roadside planting beds.
2. Prevent cars from parking on and blocking sidewalk in front of the St Johns & Marys Church
3. Discourage drivers racing up King St from driving too close the curb or or up onto the sidewalk to pass slower cars and those turning into Dagostinos.
This is the town’s opportunity to ensure the state fixes issues with their road surface & curbs now, on their dime, that would lead to improved conditions for the town to live with into the future.
Don’t forget fixing the road level would also require them remediatation of various driveway curb-cuts that home owner’s have had to modify to suit the elevated roadsurface. State should fix that too.
Is it my imagination, or was the double yellow line on King St, from 117 down to the center of town, re-striped in the last week or two? I would hope I’m wrong as that would seem a complete waste to time given the impending repaving project. But it wouldn’t be the first time a lack of coordination between public agencies has resulted in wasted effort. It’s just a shame that with all the advances in technology, there isn’t a database of all public works projects so that conflicts can be spotted and waste avoided.
HELLO!!!!! Can everyone help out us merchants here and send a letter to our town officials to ensure that when the construction switches to the other side of the bridge our precious parking spots in the lot behind Starbucks is not taken up with construction vehicles.
Last year was rough enough for us merchants we cannot have another holiday season where some unfortunate and avoidable detail is overlooked and the merchants (and customers) pay the price.
Our town officials need to coordinating with Conti Construction NOW to make sure the Allen St. lot (behind Starbucks) is kept open for the public. If it is inevitable to have spaces taken up by the construction then re-issue merchant permits (and those sneaky commuters that park there) to another lot for the holiday season.
Please help us out!!!! Yeah, a brand spankin’ new bridge will be nice…......but not if it leads to empty store fronts.
Thanks for sharing your concerns, Cindy! I wholeheartedly support your message and hope that the Town keeps that lot for the public not construction overflow. Not is more frustrating than “popping into town” and not being able to find a parking spot. One of the reasons we moved here was the low-key attitude and ease of access to our shops and restaurants - let’s continue to encourage that - thanks!
