VTRANS: Main Street poles will come down – next year
July 30, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti 
Along a section of South Main Street, just one utility wire remains on one side of the street while the opposite side is wire-free. Photo by Gordon Miller
For those keeping track of downtown Waterbury infrastructure, there’s a mix of good news and bad news to report this week.
In the good column: Stowe Street paving is moving along and a $200,000 state grant was approved to help replace sidewalks on Randall Street and part of Park Row, work town officials are aiming to get done this summer.
This summer’s paving combined with work in 2021 has refurbished the entire length of Stowe Street beween Main Street and Vermont Route 100. Photo by Gordon Miller
The flipside: Work to remove utility lines from a swath of Main Street has taken too long for the final piece of that project – removing the wooden poles and patching the new sidewalks – to happen in 2022.
The latter was confirmed this week by Ken Upmal, Vermont Agency of Transportation Project Manager for the now four-year-old Main Street project.
Crews removing overhead cables have been working on Main Street this spring and summer. Photo by Gordon Miller
The project calls for burying overhead utility lines for a section of the mile-long project, most of which was completed in 2021. Between the Congregational Church/White Meeting House and the State Office Complex, underground conduit was installed during construction on the $26 million project that rebuilt the street, installed new water and sewer lines, added new sidewalks and lighting. Lines for a variety of power and communications utilities are to be threaded through the conduit leaving the stretch above ground wire-free.
Removing the overhead lines that are attached to traditional wooden “telephone poles” has been a slow, painstaking process, Upmal said, with a number of utility companies needing to work in a particular sequence to remove their lines. That process began last summer when local residents may remember Green Mountain Power crews at work along Main Street. Recently, Consolidated Communications has been busy removing lines.
Scheduling over the past year has been affected at times by weather and staffing issues for the companies, Upmal said. The goal was to be finished by July 1.
“It’s unfortunate,” Upmal said. “But the final contractor – I don’t recall which one it is right now – didn’t get done in time.”
Currently there are no overhead lines along the side of Main Street where the fire station is located. Across the street, a single line stretches from pole to pole along much of the section.
New streetlamps with baskets along one side of Main Street stand without wires overhead. Across the street, a single wire remains. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
The timing Upmal refers to is the final step which is to activate the last contract to remove the poles and then patch the new sidewalks. The process for that, Upmal said, takes weeks and, at this rate, it could stretch into late fall when conditions for that work would not be ideal.
“We’ll get this done,” Upmal said. “By July 1 of next year.”
Waterbury lands downtown state grant
A state grant will fund new sidewalks along Randall Street and the block of Park Row between Randall and Main streets. File photo by Lisa Scagliotti
The state of Vermont recently announced more than $2.1 million in Downtown Transportation Fund grants to 15 downtowns and village centers. The money will help pay for transportation-related capital improvements such as parking, rail and bus facilities, bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements, street lighting, and wayfinding signage.
Waterbury was on the list for $200,000 to replace sidewalks on Randall Street and the block of Park Row between Main Street and Randall. The new sidewalks will be wider and more accessible. Funds will also be used to replace old lighting in Rusty Parker Memorial Park, install hanging flower baskets in the park, and add new trash and recycling receptacles.
Two other nearby communities, Waitsfield and Warren, also received funding from the downtown grant program.
The Town of Waitsfield was awarded a grant of $19,040 for safety upgrades to the Waitsfield Elementary School crosswalk. The grant will be spent on installing rapid flashing beacons at the school crossing on busy Route 100 in Waitsfield village, the first phase of a larger project to improve pedestrian safety at crosswalks along Route 100, according to the state grant announcement.
Warren had a grant request approved for $114,312 for a village traffic calming project to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists by making changes to slow vehicular traffic in its village center. The project includes narrowing roads with medians and landscaping features, making bridge and crosswalk improvements, and improving road striping and lighting.