2021 Update #19

Getting Ready for the Fourth

The Highlights

• Tidying up Triangle Park

• Waterline removal on Middle Seymour next Tuesday

Last year at this time found us navigating the early months of Covid and just two weeks shy of the 10-week shutdown of Main Street and Merchants Row that saw Middlebury’s downtown rail tunnel constructed.

Today, life in our community seems well on the way to returning to its pre-pandemic rhythms and the project that has been a part of our lives for a solid four years—work to replace the deteriorated Main Street and Merchants Row bridges got underway on June 2, 2017—is now just a few short weeks away from completion.

To prepare for the upcoming Fourth of July weekend, Kubricky has been cleaning up our downtown sidewalks and roadways and, as I’m sure you’ve noticed if you’ve been driving downtown this week, Champlain Construction has completed rebuilding the Main Street sidewalk south of Merchants Row.

With the holiday weekend, work will come to a halt at noon on Friday and then resume 7 AM Tuesday.

With that, let’s look at what took place this week and what’s on tap for next.

Your Weekly Construction Update

Let’s start up at the rail platform, where, as shown in our first photo of the week, Kubricky began building the forms for the concrete platform itself.

The trackside edge of the platform will sit 9 inches above the raised plywood foundation that parallels the rail line. The forms for the back edge of the platform can be seen in between the piers to the left of the photo. The platform has a 1% grade toward the back so that stormwater will flow off the platform and into the underdrain that we’ve talked about in earlier updates.

Next week Kubricky will continue forming and tying rebar for the platform. Pouring of concrete will begin the week of July 12.

Next Tuesday, July 6, ECI is scheduled to remove and cap an abandoned water line running across Middle Seymour Street, the back entrance to the Marble Works. Expect some temporary backups in this area as flaggers direct traffic through one travel lane.

A little further south, Kubricky has excavated a trench for the concrete curb for the Marble Works road that runs alongside the rail corridor in front of Junebug and Otter Creek Yoga. This and other roadways in the Marble Works will be repaved in late July/early August. More on that as the schedule is finalized.

Still looking very much like a construction site, Lazarus Park saw new sidewalk panels installed on Thursday. You can see the Waters crew troweling off the freshly poured concrete in our next photo. Sidewalk work will continue there next week.

Next Tuesday Waters will replace two sidewalk panels directly in front of the Duclos Building in order to eliminate a low spot in the sidewalk. The front entrance to the National Bank will remain open at all times during this work.

Triangle Park was mowed and trimmed for a second time on Thursday. Minus the fountain, which is being restored and painted down in Springfield, the centerpiece of our downtown is gradually nearing its finished state. The lawn area will be reseeded later this month.

Across the street on Merchants Row, the state’s consulting arborist revisited the honey locust trees planted in front of the Battell building and decided that two of the three trees will be replaced by Landshapes later this month. The third honey locust (the one closest to the Battell driveway) is looking healthy.

And finally, as shown in our last photo of the week, the complex set of rebar and forms for the rebuilt south cap wall took a big step forward this week, even with construction hours that were shortened by the intense heat earlier in the week. The first of four concrete pours is scheduled to take place next Friday and we should see work in this area start to wind down as we get further into July.

Wishing you and yours a safe and celebratory Fourth of July!

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.