We’ve reached an interesting part of the year where we’re at a transition point in a number of respects.
First of all, it’s now mid-late July, meaning we’re roughly at the halfway point of summer. Major League Baseball’s All-Star break just ended, and most of us are back from vacation and into the daily grind.
But there’s another thing around here that is also at the halfway point: the South Main Street construction project.
Crews are ready to engage in “the flip.” This is when every construction worker does a flip out of pure joy. It’s also when work flips from the east side of the road to the west, and it’s set to go down Monday. (We mean this past Monday, the 18th, but we had to have this story done by Sunday and didn’t want to go ahead and confirm that it happened without actually knowing. It’s probably done, though.)
“So essentially, that first half is done,” said City Engineer Ed Roberge. “All is ready to go.”
The first half of the South Main Street project went as smoothly as could be imagined, Roberge said.
“It’s been very boring,” he said. “Exciting, but boring.”
This is in contrast to last year, when North Main Street was under construction. During that project, a water main broke and flooded part of the street for a little while. Then, a confused driver went the wrong way down a one-way street and ended up getting stuck on an unfinished curb.
Luckily, there were no such problems this time around. “There have been no accidents like that,” Roberge said.
That’s an impressive feat, considering crews undertook the challenging project of installing heated sidewalks in front of the Smile Building and the Gibson’s Bookstore Building. Those systems are in and ready to go, Roberge said.
The city also appropriated an extra $2 million to have the crews bury some utility lines in the work zone, which is safer and looks nicer, Roberge said.
“Getting rid of overhead wires and poles will be a big benefit for the city,” he said. “There’s a certain level of resiliency there – protection against storm damage, less clutter in the public right of way, more of a beautification element to it.”
Those changes will be permanent, so Roberge saw that as an overall win for the city in the long term, as well as the short term.
“It’s a great economic opportunity to raise the value downtown by eliminating overhead wires and poles,” he said. “If that’s one dramatic change that we needed to respond to, that’s somewhat of a big one.”
And that was pretty much the only unforeseen obstacle to pop up during this phase of construction, and Roberge said it was a welcome one. After all, who’s going to complain about being given an extra, unexpected 2 million clams?
And although that surprise was a nice one, it was surprise nonetheless.
“That’s a significant change,” Roberge said about the extra money. “We’re kind of scrambling here.”
Uh-oh. Does this mean we should expect disastrous delays from now on?
Not at all, actually.
“The schedule still looks like it’s intact,” Roberge said.
He then said the four words every project manager – or annoyed resident – loves to hear: “On schedule, on budget.”
Sounds like a thing of beauty.
The city’s PR firm has developed a new traffic pattern sketch, and officials have been releasing and distributing that to spread the word. For the most part, though, drivers tend to figure things out pretty quickly.
“When we change the traffic pattern, it usually takes about a day, then everyone settles in,” Robege said. “They’ve seen this same kind of flip before.”
The project is on schedule to finish up Nov. 11, which is just 10 days after the long-closed Sewalls Falls Bridge is expected to be done.
“We’re looking forward to a strong finish,” Roberge said.
Amen to that!
