Two-way traffic on Route 44 west of town is expected to be restored by the end of this year. First Selectmen Henry Tirrell said that he received an update from the state Department of Transportation this week that major work on the retaining wall will be done in a matter of months.
“They will have some work to do on the infrastructure under the road and there will be a period of a week or more where they will turn off the traffic lights and have flaggers 24/7,” he said. “There may be some overnight work to try to recapture some of the time they lost to cold weather and heat this year.”
He said the project will be fully complete next spring after paving and landscaping is done but that the road will be open both ways through the winter.
The project, which replaced a length of retaining wall that was bulging and unsafe, cost $37,546,399 and has gone on for more than two years. Eighty percent of the funding came from federal sources and 20 percent from the state.
A less costly project—$1.86 million—is also nearing its end on Mountain Road where the state is replacing a bridge near the road’s intersection with Westside Road. “We hope to have it fully open in October,” Tirrell said. The cost is being borne by the federal government through funds handled by the state.
The culvert under another Mountain Road bridge collapsed this year and is currently spanned with steel plates. Tirrell hopes the town can get a TRIP (Transportation Rural Improvement Program) grant to offset some of the cost replacing it.
“The third bridge is less than six feet long—the minimum length to be eligible for a state grant—but the DEEP has said we need to make it wider,” he explained. “So, I am hoping that we can do the engineering and then apply for a TRIP grant next spring.”
TRIP grants provide state funds to municipalities for infrastructure and safety improvements. Grants range from $300,000 to $2 million with a 20 percent local match.