Road Work | Sept. 23-27
September 23, 2024 | By Lisa Scagliotti WATERBURY
Union Street closed Monday-Tuesday
On Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 23-24, Union Street will be CLOSED to through traffic for a town crew to replace sewer manhole structures. The work on both days is expected to be done between 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Repairs underway to Gregg Hill Road ‘chasm’
The collapsed culvert sections on Sunday lie alongside Gregg Hill Road in the work zone near the southern intersection with Vermont Route 100. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
After being closed for more than two months, the southern section of Gregg Hill Road was reopened to through traffic late Friday afternoon. The road has been closed due to a culvert collapse and washout during flash flooding in mid-July. Residents in neighborhoods just past the southern intersection of the road with Vermont Route 100 have had to use the northern end of the road or walk across to parked vehicles on the opposite side of the gully that they dubbed the “chasm” created by the washout. School buses have so far not traveled Gregg Hill Road this school year, instead stopping only at the Route 100 intersections.
Waterbury fourth grader Annika Hackett and her dog Jack check out the reopened section of Gregg Hill Road this weekend. Photo by Corey Hackett
A single lane has been repaired allowing for vehicles to travel through the work zone and Public Works Director Bill Woodruff urges motorists to drive with caution. “We have not completed all the work necessary, and you may encounter elevation changes and other hazards near the driving lane over the recently installed culvert,” he said late Friday.
Work is to resume today, Monday, Sept. 23. Buses and morning commuters will be allowed through, but after 8:30 a.m. the “Road Closed” signs will be placed in the roadway to allow the work crew to finish the project, Woodruff said.
Local traffic can attempt to travel over the new culvert during this time, but there may be minor delays given the equipment in the work zone.
Woodruff suggests that drivers avoid the project area during working hours as much as possible to allow the contractor’s crew to work unimpeded. “The hope is for the road to be opened up completely without restrictions by Wednesday, Sept. 25,” he said.
The Gregg Hill Road “Chasm” in photos: Click images below to enlarge and read captions.
Shaw Mansion Road dip
Work to repair the July culvert washout in the “dip” section of Shaw Mansion Road was ongoing this weekend. This post will be updated on that project’s status regarding reopening to through traffic.
INTERSTATE 89
Between Waterbury + Montpelier
A state project to rehabilitate the northbound travel lane of Interstate 89 between Montpelier and Waterbury begins on Monday, Sept. 23.
The Vermont Agency of Transportation has hired Frank W. Whitcomb Construction to begin resurfacing in the right northbound lane starting at the bridge at Mile Marker 52.5 in Montpelier and extending to the Exit 10 off-ramp at Mile Marker 63 in Waterbury.
The total project length is 10.5 miles, and the target completion date for this work is Oct. 1. According to project details, the work will consist of milling off 1-1.25 inches of the existing surface, then paving with a 1.25-inch layer.
Work is scheduled for daytime hours between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Whitcomb crews will begin the milling — grinding the existing road surface — in the northbound lane on Sept. 23 at 6 a.m. During this project, travel will be restricted to one lane northbound and the speed limit will be reduced to 55 m.p.h. and will be strictly enforced to ensure safety for workers and travelers, VTrans officials note.
Fines for speeding through a construction zone are doubled and motorists are asked to use extreme caution when traveling through the work zone.
Richmond
Motorists will encounter daily lane closures on I-89 south of Exit 11 in Richmond, Monday through Friday, between 4:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. in both the northbound and southbound lanes. The closures pertain to bridge construction on U.S. Route 2 above the interstate.
On U.S. 2, traffic control will be present between 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. with a single lane of alternating travel near the Bridge #29 construction. Motorists will find a gravel surface on both approaches to the bridge site.
DUXBURY
Selectboard: Town-wide Road Work Update
Duxbury Selectboard Chair Richard Charland recently shared a road work update covering the key repairs done and ongoing since the July flash floods that damaged many local roads. He thanked local residents for their patience with the ongoing work and asked that anyone with questions or information to pass along should contact a board member and their email addresses on the town website.
Some excerpts:
WARD HILL ROAD: The worst damage to our roads occurred on Ward Hill and encompassed almost the entire 3.5-mile length of the road. With no easy access to Ward Hill from the Duxbury side due to the bridge failure just below Harwood, the town was fortunate to have secured the services of Kingsbury Construction to get the road reopened quickly after the storm. They have been working almost nonstop on rebuilding the road since, including filling in washed-out sections, installing new culverts, ditching, and lining the ditches with stone. The contractor was called off of the job for a couple of weeks to work on an emergency project….it will take a couple more weeks to get it back into shape.
GRAVEL: The gravel we had stored at the town pit has been exhausted. At our most recent Selectboard meeting, we approved the purchase of approximately 4,500 yards of gravel and that should be arriving shortly, unfortunately, not all at once.
CAMEL’S HUMP ROAD: Bridge 41 on Camel’s Hump Road is back in service after the repair to the scouring/undermining of the uphill abutment. The concrete blocks that had been washed away were recovered from downstream and re-installed. I spoke with the VT Bridge inspector and they approved the repairs. We are in the process of consulting with the AOT Bridge Division to determine the load ratings on all (4) bridges on Camels Hump Road.
We are grateful to Percy Construction for their prompt and thorough repair to the slide on Camels Hump Road above Scrabble Hill Road. In the process of excavating and armoring the downhill side, they discovered water flowing under the road feeding from the uphill side. They installed a curtain drain along this section of the uphill side to divert the water through a drainage pipe under the road dumping it over the bank. The culvert that was in the middle of this road section and which had separated twice has been upsized. We are now waiting for the guardrail to be re-installed both here and on Atwood Road where the large culvert was replaced earlier as a result of the storm.
ACCESS TO STATE PARK TRAILS: We would like to control traffic above Scrabble Hill to the park trailhead. The road crew has not had the opportunity to repair washouts on the side of the road in a number of spots. Anyone wanting to access the trails please go through Huntington for now.
The road crew has been working on Mountainview repairing ditches etc.
PAVING on RIVER ROAD and MAIN STREET: A year ago, we overlaid a section of River Road and Main Street with new asphalt. At the time, we were advised to add a second layer this year to prolong the life of the pavement. We will do so at the beginning of October.
MAIN STREET SPEED TABLES: We will also install speed tables on Main Street. Residents of Main Street are frustrated with the speed of vehicles using the road. On three occasions while I was checking on the road, though marked for 25 mph, there was no question people were traveling at least twice the speed limit if not more. Speed tables have been installed in Waterbury in several locations in an attempt to try and deal with the problem. We will mark the road with signs to forewarn motorists as to their locations.