The Weekly Review; Fourth of July; Festival Week As the launch pit deepens, the work in Printer’s Alley is becoming both more complex and more interesting to observe. Let’s review this week’s activity and look ahead to next week. Maine D&B plans to blast late morning on Friday and then complete this round of blasting on Monday. That will take our launch pit down to about 25 feet on its way to the planned depth of 38 feet. (Rolled black felt paper shows the location of the

Parking Update; Blast on Wednesday; Flying Excavators Last week I promised to keep you up to date on the fate of those five Main Street parking spots that sit alongside Triangle Park. Early Wednesday morning, Kubricky expects to cone off those spots in preparation for delivery of materials into Triangle Park during the day. Once the materials are safely stored in the Park, those five spots will be restored, though probably not for long. Once work begins in earnest in Trian

Forward Progress; Fudgsicles; Foodaroo Blasting in Printer’s Alley continued through Thursday this week. Our launch pit, that center point of the new downtown drainage system, now stands at a depth of 18 feet, on its way to an eventual depth of 38 feet. Next week blasting will resume with another three or four blasts. Timing of the blasts on any given day is variable. As a reminder if you find yourself downtown during a blast event, here is the air horn sequence used to ale

Its Tuesday, Blast at 11:30; Printer’s Alley, Red All Over Monday’s near-height-of-summer weather and minor mid-afternoon thunderstorm didn’t slow the steady progress of our construction project. Hayward/Baker mobilized in, Maine D&B drilled charge holes for Tuesday’s blast, and Kubricky worked toward completing the temporary access road in Riverfront Park. Tuesday’s blast is scheduled to take place in late morning, around 11:30. The removal of bedrock in Printer’s Alley thr

Turning the Corner into Summer Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, arrives next Thursday. Despite my wife’s misgivings about the event (“It’s all downhill from here”), that day is generally regarded as the official start to summer. That means some of our favorite summer events are just around the corner: Foodaroo, the Peasant Market, Festival on the Green, Midd Summer Music and Movies, the Lions Club Auction & BBQ and, later this summer, the Middlebury New Filmmak

Texting and Blasting; Updating the Week’s Game Plan Recently a reader reached out with a question about the orange construction signs that now mark all the entry points into downtown. “Why are there signs that say, ‘TURN OFF 2-way radio and cell phone’? I work in the Marble Works and there's no way I can not have my cell phone on.” That sign has puzzled me, too. Everyone working in the construction zone has a cell phone and we’re communicating during the blasting process by

This Week, Next Week; Livening Up Merchants Row; Imagining New Public Spaces The Week’s Recap A fourth and fifth blast took place in Printer’s Alley as scheduled this week on Monday and Tuesday, completing the initial round of blasting. The launch pit, that 40-foot-diameter centerpiece of the new downtown drainage system, now sits eight feet deep. ECI then excavated rock fractured by the blasts, loading it into trucks that then transported the rock to Heffernan Brothers in B

Construction Expands to Riverfront Park; Neighbors Together Invests in Middlebury A fourth blast in Printer’s Alley took place as scheduled on Monday afternoon around 2 PM. Traffic and pedestrians were held up longer than expected as the team worked through a last-minute glitch, but the issue was soon resolved and the blast achieved the planned results. A fifth blast scheduled for 1 PM Tuesday will complete this initial round of blasting and will likely be the final blast of

More Blasting; Work Begins in Riverfront Park; What’s Neighbors Together Up To? Hope everyone enjoyed the near-perfect early Summer weather this weekend. This week gets underway with more blasting of ledge in Printer’s Alley on Monday and Tuesday, followed by a day or two excavating the fractured rock resulting from this first round of blasting. Late Friday Kubricky received clearance from the Agency of Transportation to begin work in Riverfront Park (that’s the formal name o

Second Blast Continues Progress; Third Blast Scheduled for Friday 11 AM We’ve now got two blasts under our belt. Thursday’s 1:30 detonation continued the step-at-a-time process of removing bedrock in Printer’s Alley to create a new drainage system for central downtown and the rail corridor. Maine D&B was pleased with the technical results of the blast. You can see the fractured bedrock starting to be excavated in the photo below, taken about an hour post-blast. The blast pro