2020 Update #55
Getting Ready for Winter
The Highlights
Final steel sheets pulled from the north end
Final plantings for the year in Triangle Park
Printer’s Alley sidewalk to be paved next week
Take Middlebury Home this weekend
The construction work that began this week in unusually fair weather has once again adjusted to more seasonal temps in the 40s—a reminder that yes, this really is November, and winter is on its way.
Still, while the weather holds, work continues, with the goal of getting the downtown construction site ready for winter.
Your Weekly Construction Update
Let’s start this week’s update on the north end of the project, where on Monday ECI finished pulling those steel sheets that stabilized the rail slopes north of Main Street during this summer’s construction.
In our first weekly photo below, a vibratory hammer, suspended from ECI’s crane, has just pulled one of the last of some 120 steel sheets. From here, the sheets were transported to the Middlebury railyard, where they were cleaned and readied for the next job.
In the photo’s foreground, a Kubricky crew continued tying rebar along the northwest u-wall in preparation for forming up and pouring more cap walls next year.
On Tuesday ECI installed a new drainage structure just south of the Depot along Seymour Street. That meant that alternating lane traffic continued on Seymour Street through Tuesday as the crane sat out into the southbound lane. Traffic is now back to normal on Seymour Street.
Twelve Trees
Landshapes, our landscape contractor, wrapped up its work for the year earlier this week by planting 12 new trees in Triangle Park.
The photo below shows six newly planted Green Hawthorn trees lining the walkway that will connect Main Street and Merchants Row through Triangle Park. The hawthorns will grow to a height of about 15 feet. On the right, next to St. Stephen’s, is a mature Honey Locust tree.
The next photo shows one of six Sienna Glen Maples planted along the perimeter of Triangle Park. These maples will grow to a height of some 35-40 feet as they mature.
On the sidewalk front, with Waters having finished saw-cutting the control joints that we’ve been talking about, this week Kubricky applied the silane coating that will protect the concrete from water penetration and damage from salt.
Next week, Waters will seal the expansion joints that separate each sidewalk panel with a polyurethane sealant while Kubricky applies silane to the cap walls on the north end. Waters will begin saw-cutting control joints on sidewalk panels inside Triangle Park next week.
In more winter-readiness work, late next week Kubricky expects to pave with asphalt the Printer’s Alley walking path that runs alongside the Duclos building as well the roadway that extends from the National Bank’s back parking lot past the Gas House and down toward Junebug.
Kubricky has been grading out Printer’s Alley and the area between the Post Office and the rail line and next week will apply hay mulch to stabilize the ground during the winter. Subcontractor Lafayette returns to town next week to complete installing road signs and to put a chain-link fence alongside the north end cap walls.
Our final photo of the week shows landscape soil being put in place alongside the sidewalk that leads from Court Square down Merchants Row, another task on the way to winter.
And in this week’s final bit of construction news, Kubricky—which for the past year has operated out of The Diner on Merchants Row—has relocated its field HQ south of town to Midd South Plaza, next to Juice Amour and 7 South Sandwich Company.
Bundle on Merchants Row
On Saturday, Bundle—our innovative pop-up storefront that began life on Main Street and has found creative ways to keep serving the community during the pandemic—will sponsor an outdoor artists’ market on Merchants Row.
Dubbed “Take Middlebury Home,” this event will feature 10 Vermont artists/makers selling from their vehicles parked on Merchants Row. Plus live music.
Bundle has experience in putting on public events that follow health and safety guidelines. The artists’ market gets underway Saturday morning at 10 AM and continues until 3 PM. So get a head start on your holiday shopping, support our local artists, and maybe give a little bit of Middlebury to your friends and family.
That’s all for today. See you downtown.
Please keep your comments and questions coming. Send me an email at jgish@townofmiddlebury.org and I’ll try to cover it in my next update.