Each week, City Manager Tom Aspell is chilly in his office because it’s still a wintery nightmare, so he digs out the quilt his grandma made him 20 years ago. But the dust it’s collected causes an allergic sneezing fit so strong he flips right out of his chair. But he does sneeze in a rhythmic pattern that spells out a city memo!
Legalized potholes
Fill ‘em up
Concord General Services’ Highway and Utilities crews have been keeping busy this past month filling potholes, Aspell writes. Crews have filled 2,915 potholes so far this season. So, by our count after driving the local streets, that only leaves a couple million more to go!
Melty melty
Rink is extinct (’til winter)
You can watch Concord General Services’ new YouTube video featuring the Everett Arena’s conversion process from an ice rink back to concrete for spring shows and events, Aspell writes. Spoiler alert: it’s not done using a hair dryer to melt the ice. The video can be found on the department’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/user/concordnhgs.
Drive slow, homie
Safety first, motorists
Downtown traffic flowed smoothly last week – a little too smoothly in fact. Cars have been maintaining their normal speed on North Main Street, which is a bit too fast under current conditions for safety, Aspell writes. Motorists are advised to drop their speed to 10 mph or so when driving through the work zone to ensure the safety of workers and pedestrians. Super pokey pedestrians, meanwhile, are asked to increase their speed from molassesy glacial to NORMAL HUMAN WALKING for the sanity of everyone.
Pedestrians are asked to let the flaggers do their jobs and not charge into a crosswalk that is being controlled by a flagger without allowing the flagger to stop traffic. Wait, charging into crosswalks willy nilly = bad? Got it.
Underground utility work and storm drain construction will continue this week, primarily on the east side of the street. The traffic flow will vary depending on the nature of the work. There will be some one-lane, alternating north-south traffic control (like we had at times last fall), as well as the one lane in each direction flow that was being maintained this past week. Diagonal lanes have not been approved, despite our insistence.
This week’s work will take place in the area near CVS, at Depot Street and near the Eagle Hotel, Fabulous Looks Boutique and Merrimack County Savings Bank. In preparation for its smooth removal at the appropriate time, a crew will be pre-cutting the existing concrete sidewalk where it joins with building fronts along the east side of North Main Street.
April 16 is the target date for converting the east side of North Main Street, from Centre Street/Loudon Road to Pleasant Street, to the full work zone. At that time, North Main Street traffic flow will convert to one lane southbound. Northbound traffic will re-route to Storrs or State Street.
