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09/07/2022 08:37 AMThe Route 77 (Church Street) sidewalk extension project is quickly coming to completion as town officials expect it to be wrapped up by the end of the month. Though some small features such as landscaping and line-painting may take a bit longer, Town Engineer Janice Plaziak said the bulk of the project is on-schedule.
The project’s goal was to improve existing sidewalks while extending sidewalks from Adams Middle School, north up Route 77 to Hubbard Road, just past the emergency services complex. The sidewalks will now follow the east side of the road up to a point just past the police station where a new crosswalk has been installed.
Pedestrians and bikers will now be able cross Route 77 with an added measure of safely and continue on the sidewalk up to the junction of Hubbard Road next to the St. George Cemetery.
Plaziak said the project ran into a minor delay but is still expected to finish by Thursday, Sept. 29.
“They are just finishing up. They just have some final drainage work to do. We ran into some utility conflicts that held that up throughout the duration of the project, but we resolved those issues,” said Plaziak. “We are installing the last two catch basins and then they have to do the last pour of concrete for those sections of sidewalk near those drainage basins and at couple of other locations.”
According to Plaziak, the project is on track and the final touches should be completed by the end of September.
“The pavement patching has to be completed after that and the change in line striping also has to occur,” Plaziak said. “By contract, I believe they are supposed to be completed by Sept. 29, so we expect them to be finished by that contract completion date if not sooner. The only other outstanding issue is some final landscaping work.”
According to Plaziak, no lane changes will occur with the project, but the actual road is now more constricted to allow for the sidewalks and hopefully slow down motorists.
“The only thing that did change was that the lanes got shifted. On the north end of the project up by Hubbard Road, lanes got shifted in order to allow room for the sidewalks to take over a portion of what was previously the road. So the paved roadway is more narrow up by that portion of the project because the sidewalk took up a portion of pavement,” Plaziak said. “All of the lanes will be the same, the left turn lane onto I-95 South will still be there. They will just be a little narrower. The lanes were oversized previously so there was plenty of room to make that work.”
The new sidewalk will only run along the east side of the road and under the highway bridge, and the crosswalk will be located just north of the emergency services complex, there will be a crosswalk painted there and the remainder of the sidewalk will bring you up Hubbard Road a short ways along the west side of the road. And there is also a short extension along the east side that will bring folks up to driveway of the Guilford Arts Center.”
Plaziak also said that the pending sidewalk project on Boston Street is on schedule. No work has begun on that project as of yet, but Plaziak said the town has gotten bids back from contractors and are hoping to award that contract soon.