By Jon Bodell - Nov 22, 2016 | 1 comment

Doesn’t the road look so much more inviting these days? (TIM GOODWIN / Insider staff)

One of the bumpouts on the sidewalk provides some granite blocks to sit on, a now-leafless tree to gaze at and some receptacles to throw your trash or recyclables in. Not bad. (TIM GOODWIN / Insider staff)

One of the nice new crosswalks on North Main Street. (TIM GOODWIN / Insider staff)

Signs like this now dot the light poles of Main Street. This should help visitors find their way around a little easier than before. (ELIZABETH FRANTZ / Monitor staff)

This bronze boy holding a turtle, created by Beverly Benson Seamans, is one of the newer additions to South Main Street. (ELIZABETH FRANTZ / Monitor staff)

New planting beds like this have really improved the aesthetics of downtown Concord. (ELIZABETH FRANTZ / Monitor staff)

It’s official: the Main Street project is done.

You probably thought you’d never see the day, but here we are, alive and well in the new world.

It’s been a whirlwind couple of years in the capital city, but after all of the road closures, detours and general headaches, we can finally sit back and enjoy the end result.

Since we checked in with City Engineer Ed Roberge at the completion of the North Main Street project and now the South Main project, we decided to go to that well one more time to see if we could get some stats from the project as a whole, including both ends of Main Street.

Being the diligent city engineer that he is, Roberge of course obliged and sent us a nice stat pack. Check it out:

Insider: How much asphalt was laid down?

Roberge: About 8,000 tons.

I: How many cobblestones were used?

R: 808 square yards – about 4,000 cobblestones.

I: How much granite was installed?

R: 13,490 linear feet – about 45 football field lengths.

I: Parking spaces: What’s the net outcome for the whole project?

R: Overall, there are 21 spaces less than when we started – although we added 63 spaces on the south end of Storrs Street, which seem to be highly utilized.

I: How many of the parking ticket-dispensing kiosks are there now?

R: 25 now in service.

I: What was the toughest challenge encountered throughout the process?

R: I would say the toughest challenge was design and procurement. Once we selected the contractor through the CM/GC process, we were able to review item by item in terms of risk, costs, installation rates and available work area. Construction was well planned and executed. The late decision on undergrounding utilities was quite a challenge – although the project team was well prepared and resilient – with the enormous support of the utilities – to pull it off (nearly).