2021 Update #17
From Lambsquarters to Scorsese
The Highlights
More of Triangle Park opens up
South cap wall demo nearly done
Thursday night at the movies
Mid-June’s near-perfect weather made for a busy workweek on our downtown construction project so let’s get right to the details.
We’ll begin our weekly walk-through in Triangle Park, where more of the chain-link fencing has now come down, giving you more of an opportunity to get to know your new park.
One small triangular section of exposed aggregate sidewalk remains to be installed up alongside Main Street near St. Stephens. Once that’s done, the remaining mound of topsoil can be spread and seeded, the sidewalks cleaned up, and the park fully opened, with only the fountain remaining to be installed a little later this summer.
Some of our eagle-eyed locals have asked why we have planted weeds instead of grass in Triangle Park’s lawn space and alongside the Town Green. Here’s the story on that.
The locally purchased top soil—a mix of compost and sand as we discussed recently—contained seeds of the common garden weed known as lambsquarters. These have now begun to grow alongside the grass. As the lawn is mowed—before the lambsquarters goes to seed—the grass should begin to fully establish itself. We’ll see how that goes.
Crossing Main Street to Lazarus Park, in our first photo of the week Waters can be seen forming up the stairs that will lead down past the labyrinth and its retaining wall (also visible in the photo) and into the Marble Works.
In our next photo, Kubricky is excavating the lower edge of Lazarus Park so that granite curbing can be installed along the roadway leading out of Printer’s Alley and into the Marble Works.
As I mentioned last week, it’s been determined that the Lazarus Park sidewalk and curbing need to be in place before Landshapes can begin assembling the stone paver labyrinth that sits inside the retaining wall.
Moving north up the rail corridor, Witch has begun coring holes in the cap wall north of Main Street so that, in another couple of weeks, Lafayette can install the decorative railing that will sit atop the cap walls. And, as shown in our next photo, Kubricky has begun grading out the area between the Post Office and the rail line so that top soil can be spread and seeded and a mix of red oak, sugar maple, and serviceberry trees planted in this space.
A little further north, Carrara’s concrete pump truck will set up Friday in the National Bank’s Seymour Street parking lot so that ECI can pour more cap walls on the east side of the rail corridor. A second and final pour will take place toward the end of next week, completing the cap walls on the north end of the project.
Up at the Amtrak rail platform, Kubricky has nearly completed installing the underdrain that will take stormwater running off the platform’s canopy into the town’s stormwater drainage system. Next week we should see Kubricky start to form up the platform itself, with concrete scheduled for about mid-July.
We’ll wrap up our weekly tour at the south cap wall, the scene of much activity and good progress this week. The Witch crew finished saw cutting and removing the large cap wall sections on Thursday and the Kubricky crew expects to finish hammering out the remaining few inches between the saw cut and the top of the U-walls early next week
Right behind them, as you can see in our final photo of the week, another Kubricky crew is tying rebar for the new cap wall, a far less noisy operation.
In other construction news, as you undoubtedly have noticed driving through town this week, the Town’s project to replace the Main Street sidewalk south of Merchants Row got underway as planned on Monday with Champlain Construction removing curbs and sidewalk this week before Granite State comes in to install granite curbing next Monday. Alternating lane traffic through the center of town is expected to remain in place through the end of the month, with the project finishing up right before the Fourth of July.
Sunset with Scorsese
When was the last time you went out to the movies?
Our friends at the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival are excited to announce what they, in a cascade of S’s, are calling “The Sunset Series at Swift House Inn/Summer of Scorsese.”
You can join MNFF every Thursday between July 8 and August 5 for outdoor screenings of five classic films directed by Martin Scorsese, beginning with Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. The screenings will take place beneath a spacious outdoor tent and you can enjoy picnic dinners and drinks available from Jessica's at the Swift House.
Sunset Series passes and tickets will go on sale at the Town Hall Theater box office on Monday, June 21. Contact Town Hall Theater at townhalltheater.org or at 388-1436.
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.