2021 Update #34

Neighbors, Together: The Power of Community

The Highlights

• Neighbors Together releases Final Report

• Working through the punch list

Successful projects seem to find the right people to lead them. This proved to be the case across the board with the Middlebury Bridge & Rail Project and nowhere was it more true than with the community’s response to the challenges posed by this four-year construction effort in the heart of downtown.

As we’ve reported throughout the course of construction, the community-led, all-volunteer group Neighbors Together played a pivotal role in managing the impact of downtown construction on our business community and on the vitality of our community life.

Through a blend of creative planning, broad representation of community stakeholders, and a committed group of volunteers, Neighbors Together was able to secure grants from the Vermont Agency of Transportation that helped it maintain Middlebury’s economic vitality, accessibility, and its distinct role as a cultural and social hub.

In just one measure of its success, Neighbors Together conservatively estimates that its investment in a range of programs and initiatives—including, for example our Downtown Block Party, Bundle, and the Middlebury Money giveaways—generated a direct economic impact of more than $600,000.

Neighbors Together has just issued its Final Report, which is intended to document its achievements and to create a playbook for other Vermont communities eyeing major construction projects. You can read about the many achievements of Neighbors Together in the Final Report here.

Neighbors Together was chaired by Nancy Malcolm and Linda Horn in partnership with Karen Duguay, executive director of the Better Middlebury Partnership. Nancy and Karen are shown in the first photo above touring the newly completed rail tunnel last summer while Linda is on the left of the “Read” sign installed on the construction fence alongside Triangle Park in 2019 in the photo below.

Your Weekly Construction Update

Kubricky is down to a three-person crew in town now as they work through the final items of the punch list.

During the past two weeks, the Kubricky crew has completed repairing minor cracks in the parapet walls that overlook the rail corridor at Main Street and Merchants Row. Down in the rail tunnel, Kubricky is doing the same with minor cracks in the U-walls.

Kubricky also spread more polymer sand between the cobblestone bump-outs on Main Street and Merchants Row that were lowered during pressure washing earlier this month. Kubricky has also been clearing out the new sewer manholes following the Town’s inspection.

In other construction news, Hutchins has now completed the paving of our downtown roadways except for line striping and some adjustments to valves sitting low in the roadway. Munson continues to install the new sewer line at the back entrance to the Marble Works and is preparing to install curbing in the parking area in front of the new rail platform.

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.