Forewarned is forearmed! Drivers, pedestrians and cyclists will encounter road work, sidewalk work and Waitsfield water project work on Route 100 this spring, summer and fall.
Construction of Waitsfield’s municipal water project is nearing completion. Some work is taking place this week in front of the Waitsfield Elementary School and there is more work to be done on the water main near Bragg Hill, plus final cleanup of front yards and patch paving. That work will occur throughout May.
Later, in the fall, when the well house on Reed Road is completed, there will be pressure testing of the entire system and if any trouble spots are found throughout the service area (Route 100, Tremblay Road, Old County Road), there will be more minor traffic delays.
While municipal water project work is nearing completion, a second project impacting Waitsfield will be out to bid with a mid-June start date. That project, a Route 100 transportation path (18 years in the making), will go out to bid in mid to late April. This sidewalk/path will run from the Waitsfield Elementary School to the south end of the Irasville Cemetery, across from the center entrance to the Mad River Green Shopping Center.
This project which require closing one lane of traffic, although it is a much less complicated project that anything done for the town’s water project.
The sidewalk project involves roughing up the shoulder of the road, excavating material, trucking material away from the site and installing a sub-base. Then forms for concrete will be set and curbing installed. After the concrete is poured and set, patching paving where necessary will occur.
Valerie Capels, Waitsfield town administrator, said it was not yet clear whether the sidewalk project would start from the north or the south; ditto on the water project. She said she expected they would be coordinated to minimize traffic delays.
While the sidewalk project is out to bid, a final phase of the water project will go out to bid. That portion of the project entails bringing water service lines from the water mains along Route 100 into individual properties. That may or may not require closing a lane of traffic.
“It is possible that this can be done without impacting traffic. The curb stops are already inside of where the new sidewalk will be,” Capels said.
The sidewalk will be finished by October 31 at the very latest, although Capels said she was hopeful it would not take five months.
The final leg of the road work triathlon is the complete repaving and rebuilding of Route 100 from Warren to Waitsfield, including the creation of paved four-foot shoulders wherever possible along this route. That work was scheduled for this summer but was delayed by the Vermont Agency of Transportation’s work to obtain the necessary environmental approvals. Work on that project is now slated to start this fall with the Warren to Waitsfield section of Route 100, excluding any portion of the village and Irasville where the other two projects will be underway or wrapping up.
Next summer, the state will continue with that project, including Waitsfield Village and Irasville.
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