2021 Update #5

More New Sidewalks Downtown, More Construction Around Town

The Highlights

• Main Street to get more new sidewalks

• Court Street water main upgrade, Rail Platform project eye April starts

• News from Festival on the Green

This past weekend Triangle Park emerged from its winter coating of snow to remind us of the work that took place last Fall—and that will continue this Spring and into the Summer—to create a new public gathering space in the center of town.

You’ll start to see activity in Triangle Park and elsewhere downtown next month as Kubricky mobilizes back into the field the week of April 5.

This week let’s catch up on some other construction projects about to get underway around town that will continue the job of revitalizing Middlebury’s infrastructure, starting with sidewalks.

Improving Walkability Downtown

Last year VTrans rebuilt the sidewalks on Merchants Row and on Main Street between the Post Office and Merchants Row. This Spring our Public Works department will further improve the look and walkability of downtown by replacing more sidewalks on Main Street.

At its upcoming March 23 meeting, the Middlebury Selectboard will award a contract to 1) reconstruct the Main Street sidewalk between Merchants Row and the intersection with Mill Street and Bakery Lane and 2) install new granite curbing at the upper end of Main Street near the intersection with Seymour Street.

As you can see in the photograph below, these sidewalks are much in need of repair.

Work is expected to get underway in May with a completion date of July 1. While the sidewalks are being rebuilt, traffic will be limited during the day to a single lane between Merchants Row and Mill Street/Bakery Lane, with flaggers managing traffic flow.

To take a closer look at the sidewalk reconstruction plan, click here for the upper section of Main Street and here for the section between Merchants Row and Mill Street/Bakery Lane.

Court Street Water Main Project Update

Before Route 7 is repaved later this summer (we covered that project in our last community update), and as I mentioned earlier this year, Public Works will be replacing the aging water main on Court Street between Court Square and Cross Street. If you regularly drive this route, you’ve no doubt noticed rather frequent breaks in the water line in this section of Route 7.

The Belden Company out of Rutland has been awarded this contract. Work is expected to begin in April and to wrap up by July 1. Most of the work will take place in the southbound lane of Court Street/Route 7, with traffic during the day limited to a single lane and again controlled by flaggers.

Rail Platform Update

Rounding out the trio of upcoming projects, construction of the Amtrak rail platform will get underway next month as well.

You may recall that this contract was awarded to Kubricky, whose team expects to begin work the week of April 19. The first order of business will be to excavate a foundation for the platform before setting footings and piers to support the platform and installing drainage piping.

As a reminder, the rail platform is to be constructed across the track from The Depot/County Tire at the back entrance to the Marble Works. This construction will take place during the day, Monday – Friday, and will finish up by September 1.

I’ll be keeping you up to date on all of this construction activity in the weeks and months ahead.

A Look Ahead to Summer Events

Finally, in a hopeful sign that things are starting to return to normal, Festival on the Green expects to return to the Town Green this year with evening concerts the week of August 2, preceded on Saturday, July 31, by the St. Stephen’s Peasant Market. I’ll share more details on these key Middlebury summer events as we get closer to those dates.

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.