By Saylor Flannery | Community News Service
Built in 1928, the bridge at the top of Stowe Street sits just below the intersection with Vermont Route 100, spanning Thatcher Brook. That bridge will be replaced this summer and fall.
“It's in fair-to-poor condition, so it's been ready for bridge replacement for several years now,” Waterbury Public Works director Bill Woodruff said.
Construction on the project, which is being overseen by the Vermont Agency of Transportation, is set to start in late May and last until November. The section of Stowe Street near the bridge will be closed for 60 days, and nearby Lincoln Street will be shut down for 21 days. The new bridge includes the addition of another lane. It will include a right-turning lane headed northbound on Route 100, and a straight/left-turning lane for traffic heading straight up Blush Hill Road and turning left onto Route 100 southbound.
The sidewalk will also be moved to the upstream side of the bridge, which Woodruff said will be more friendly to pedestrians and give more room for drivers turning toward Lincoln Street.
Contractor J. Hutchins from Richmond won the project bid, with an estimated cost of $3.4 million, down from an original estimate of more than $4.3 million.
Typically, projects like the bridge revamp involve the town paying 5% of the cost, municipal manager Tom Leitz said. The town paid that amount for the engineering, he said, but the state picked up the rest of the tab.
Several key detours will be happening during construction.
- Detour for the 21-day closure of Lincoln Street. It will direct traffic to travel onto Perry Hill Road to Kneeland Flats Road to Guptil Road, and back onto VT 100.
- Detour for the 60-day closure of Stowe Street. It will direct traffic from Stowe Street onto Main Street to Vermont Route 100.
- One will direct Stowe Street traffic onto Perry Hill Road, then left onto Kneeland Flats Road, left onto Guptil Road and back onto Vermont Route 100.
- For the other detour, traffic headed down Stowe Street from Route 100 toward Brookside Primary School and Main Street will need to go around by taking Route 100 over Interstate 89 and through the roundabout to Main Street.
The state’s park and ride lot on Lincoln Street also will be closed during construction. Agency of Transportation staff have designated a lot at the State Office Complex in downtown Waterbury as the temporary park and ride. Commuters and those needing a spot to park will be directed to the lot at the intersection of Park Row and Randall Street in what was formerly the Stanley and Wasson halls parking lot.
Locals can also get phone alerts from the town by texting “Waterbury” to 91896. “It's a simple way for us to text out a message to people … in the event there's some sort of a last-minute issue with the bridge,” Leitz said.
One concern people might have is that they won’t be able to walk across the bridge during the construction period to shop at Shaw’s. But Leitz said officials don’t believe there will be a problem.
“The Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission last year put some cameras on the existing bridge to try to get some numbers on pedestrian use of the bridge,” he said. “I believe they had those cameras up for about a month, and they did not capture any pedestrians using the bridge, so we think we're OK in that regard.”
If a problem does arise during the construction period, officials will work with people to try and get creative, he said.
Jeanne and Jim Atchinson, who live on Stowe Street in the house closest to the bridge, might be facing the most discomfort from the project. The state purchased the right-of-way for a corner of their land for what the couple believes will be a piece of the bridge foundation. Some of the oldest trees on the couple’s property are being cut down to make room for construction vehicles, too.
The Atchinsons hope that one of the major improvements from the project will be easing the frequent traffic snarls on the bridge and at the interaction with Route 100 and Lincoln Street given the wider new bridge design and the turning lane. Currently, cars headed right and left onto Route 100, and straight across the intersection to go up Blush Hill Road, all stack up at the busy intersection. Vehicles often stretch from the light down Stowe Street.
