2019 Update #8

Snow, Spring? Box Elders

As Wednesday night’s snowfall turned to Spring-like temperatures on Thursday, the tree clearing in the rail corridor that got underway late last week continued its steady progress south toward Cross Street Bridge.

As you will have noticed if you’ve driven into the Marble Works in the past few days, much of the first few days’ work involved clearing trees, primarily box elders, along the rail line between County Tire and Middle Seymour Street (the back entrance to the Marble Works).

As I mentioned last week, tree removal in this area will serve a dual purpose, clearing the way for reconstruction of the rail line up to the Elm Street overpass as well as preparing for 2020 construction of the town’s new rail platform and parking area for Amtrak service.

The photograph above shows one of the workers for Trees Incorporated about 30 feet up a cottonwood tree in preparation for topping a section of the tree that is leaning out toward Elm Street.

For now, much of the felled wood will remain in place until later in the month when it will be trucked to HOPE for its emergency firewood shelter on Boardman Street.

Next week we’ll see the tree clearing move into the rail cut between Main Street and Merchants Row and then continue south to Cross Street.

The trees being cleared are either in the railroad right of way, which is owned by the State of Vermont, or on private property whose owners have requested that the trees be removed.

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.