2021 Update #12
Triangle Park Sidewalks to Reopen
The Highlights
Triangle Park nears completion
Downtown crosswalks to get restriped
Rail platform and paving project updates
This week Triangle Park—now weighing in at about four times its pre-construction size—once again took center stage in the downtown construction as Landshapes returned to complete the park’s hardscape, assembling the final two sections of granite pavers.
You may recall that a paved landscape for public events emerged as a central request of the community during the public meetings held in Fall 2018 to define the features of the rebuilt and redesigned Triangle Park.
In our first photo of the week, taken Monday as work got underway, a member of the Landshapes crew is positioning a granite paver into place on a bed of mortar using a vacuum paver lifter. In the second photo, taken Thursday, you can see the first paver section completed in the background and Landshapes at work on the second.
On Friday Kubricky will spread topsoil and seed the green space between the two sidewalks connecting Main Street and Merchants Row. That area is visible as a stone base beyond the sidewalk in the first photo above.
While Triangle Park won’t fully open to the public yet—the fountain still needs to be installed and some other finish work completed—the fences will now be pulled back to open up the sidewalk along Main Street and Merchants Row. And the sidewalk connecting Main Street and Merchants Row closest to St. Stephen’s will open to pedestrians. A good reason to come down and take a look at your new park!
Earlier in the week, as shown in our next photo, a Kubricky crew spread topsoil on the Town Green side of the sidewalk leading up Merchants Row to Court Square. Topsoil used in construction projects is a mix of sand and compost.
You may have noticed that the Main Street crosswalks at Merchants Row and Triangle Park have largely disappeared from sight, worn down by traffic. On Friday morning L&D will restripe the crosswalks. Later this summer the crosswalks will again be restriped using more durable paint as the final paving of Main Street and Merchants Row takes place.
Across Main Street in Printer’s Alley, Kubricky poured the second half of the cast-in-place retaining wall that will partly encircle the new stone paver labyrinth. Those intricate forms that we pictured last week will be removed next week and the area backfilled to bring Lazarus Park up to its new grade.
Waters will then return to form up the stairs that lead down to the labyrinth. (A second ADA-accessible pathway will loop around the back of the retaining wall/labyrinth.)
Beyond Printer’s Alley along the rail corridor, ECI continued its long march northward, forming up and pouring the concrete cap walls that create a top “trim piece” for the U-walls.
South of Merchants Row, a Kubricky crew completed forming the retaining wall behind the Smith Housing Partnership building. Concrete for that wall will get poured on Friday.
Two weeks ago I let you know that the cap walls that sit on top of the U-walls that line the rail corridor south of Merchants Row will need to be replaced. VTrans and Kubricky were testing a new process for applying concrete to form the cap walls, one that would have saved time versus the conventional process. A post-application analysis revealed some flaws in the concrete that will require replacement.
This work, which will get underway in June, will require temporarily closing the Battell driveway and reopening the access road that runs between the Battell parking lot and Water Street alongside Otter Creek.
Starting next week, Kubricky will begin prepping the access road for motor vehicle traffic in anticipation of opening it up and beginning demolition and reconstruction of the cap wall after Memorial Day weekend. More details as we get closer to June.
Other Construction News
Work on the Amtrak Rail Platform continued moving forward this week. As you can see in our final photo of the week, the forms for the 18 footings that we discussed last week have now been placed in the excavated trench and rebar (it’s green) is being tied. Those footings will be poured with concrete next week and then Kubricky will begin forming up the piers that will sit on top of each footing and whose purpose will be to support the platform’s canopy.
Turning to the downtown highways paving project, Hutchins continues to work at night adjusting catch basins and manholes and related finish work on Route 7. They are currently working in the area north of Elm Street.
Finally, as you may well have noticed, Belden has now reverted back to day work on the Court Street water main project. Local businesses and residences are still being served by a temporary waterline as sections of the new water main are being flushed and tested. Later this month, temporary detours will go into place as Belden will need to excavate across the south end of Court Square. More info on that as the schedule firms up.
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.