Main Street poles finally come down; sidewalk patches await
July 9, 2023 | By Lisa Scagliotti
Four years after crews began cutting down trees to make way for Main Street road, sidewalk and underground utility improvements, the finish line is finally in sight.
A couple dozen now obsolete wooden utility poles came down recently after sidewalk sections were cut away allowing for workers with heavy equipment to carefully loosen the poles, pull them out, and backfill the holes they left. Wires they previously held up for power, telephone and cable services along South Main Street between Stowe Street and the State Office Complex have been replaced by new ones buried in plastic conduit beneath the new sidewalks that were poured in 2021.
The $21 million Main Street reconstruction project rebuilt the street, replaced aging water and sewer lines, added new sidewalks and curbing, and installed new streetlamps, some of which are outfitted with decorative banners or hanging flower baskets. Work began in 2019 and mostly was completed by late summer 2021 when a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held with state and local officials including a visit by then-U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy.
Nearly two years later, the actual final steps are slowly getting ticked off the to-do list. After delays and miscommunication with the last utility that had an overhead wire in place, the single remaining Vermont Telephone line was removed in early June leaving nothing connecting poles from the Stowe Street intersection to the State Office Complex.
The project’s lead contractor J.A. McDonald prepped the spots for removing the poles by cutting away the sidewalk sections around the now unneeded poles.
On June 15-16, a crew from contractor Charles Curtis in Danville worked to carefully extract the poles. Some came out quickly, others required extra effort. As each one came out of the ground, the six-foot-deep holes they left behind were filled in. The removals also included wood poles along Stowe Street in the block closest to Main Street. (see photo below)
The work with a large truck and trailer taking up a travel lane for hours and its tall overhead arm manipulating the poles caught lots of attention as the crew worked its way along Main Street. People stopped to watch as the process unfolded.
P. Howard “Skip” Flanders, a lifelong local resident and chair of the Edward Farrar Utility District Board of Commissioners, snapped photos. “It’s a historic day for Waterbury,” Flanders said.
“It looks better already,” commented Tom Mancini, an engineer with the Vermont Agency of Transportation watching the work under way. He explained that the final steps now will involve installing new sidewalk sections made up of two types of concrete - the regular concrete and the reddish variety that’s stamped to resemble bricks - as well as some granite curb repairs both in the pole sections and in a couple of other spots along the street that need attention.
Blush Hill resident Jeff Michaelson was among those on the sidewalk watching the spectacle. “I have a smile on my face,” he said. It’s been frustrating to see the delay in getting the wires and poles down as the Main Street project was designed, Michaelson said. He said he called town and state officials looking for explanations and even contacted Waterbury state Rep. Tom Stevens. “It’s the first time I talked to any legislator about an issue,” he said.
Given the timing a week before Waterbury’s early Independence Day celebration, Michaelson said he was pleased to see the progress.
Factoring in the delays so far this season, the initial goal to have the work completed by June has obviously changed. State Roadway Design Project Manager Ken Upmal told Waterbury Roundabout that the revised deadline now for the sidewalk and curb repairs is to finish by “late August/early September.”
The view down Stowe Street after wooden utility poles are removed from the lower block and intersection with South Main Street. Photo by Gordon Miller