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Masonry Work in Downtown Includes Improvements to Chester Wall

Although all major construction on the Main Street Project in Chester was completed last summer, the town has one remaining and important phase left: masonry work. This includes improvements to the Chester Wall.

“It feels like the Main Street project isn’t done if the Chester Wall is a mess,” said Chester First Selectman Lauren Gister, speaking at the April 14 Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting.

With loose stones and crumbling mortar at issue, town officials are set on solidifying the wall and its historical legacy. As the former terminus for an electric trolley service, the Chester stone wall is well known as one of the last vestiges of that mode of transportation in town.

The trolley in Chester, which ran from 1914 to 1919, was part of a larger line along the southern coastline of Connecticut between New Haven and Old Saybrook that was owned and operated by the Shore Line Electric Railway.

Improvements to this historical marker in Chester will include replacing stones representing the letters “E” and “R” in the word Chester, repairing loose mortar, resetting any loose stone, and a thorough cleaning with a power washer.

The restoration of the Chester wall is one part of a proposal for masonry work in four different areas of Chester’s downtown. The proposal, prepared by Shoreline Landscapes, a Clinton-based landscape and hardscape company, was reviewed and approved by the BOS on April 14.

“We have a very detailed proposal from them, broken down the way they were asked to, for each of the segments,” said Selectman Charlene Janecek at the meeting.

In addition to the Chester wall, the traffic island near the intersection of Maple and Main streets will see improvements.

“The Main Street side of that little island, where the flagpole is, is starting to bulge out and deteriorate,” said Janecek.

One part of the repair in this area is to reinstall loose stones and seal the cracks in the wall of the traffic island. The other part entails installing a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) drainage pipe and rebuilding a portion of the wall that is leaning.

Installing proper drainage is necessary, as the masons believe water runoff from the street is causing the wall to lean.

“They think it’s water damage,” said Janecek. “All the water from Maple Street comes down and that’s where it congregates.

“If you look at the flagpole, there is a drain on the right-hand side, but there is nothing on the left-hand side, and that is where the bulge and deterioration is taking place,” she continued.

The mason contractors will also make repairs, such as sealing cracks and replacing missing stones, to two walls near Little House Brewing Company, 16 Main Street.

The total cost of the masonry work downtown is $16,860, which has already been approved as part of the town’s Main Street capital funds.

“We’ve accounted for this in our budgeting, so it doesn’t change any of our projections for how we set the budget numbers for this year,” said Gister. “We knew that this was coming, we just didn’t have it yet.”

The masonry work is expected to start at the end of April, with a two-week timeframe for completing the repairs.