By Sharron Luttrell
Cemetery Street will remain closed to two-way traffic during the Providence Street culvert project, the Select Board decided tonight.
The board’s vote is contingent on the police, fire and school departments devising protocols for allowing emergency vehicles and school buses to have wrong-way access to Cemetery Street. A police detail would ensure school buses are able to safely do this. If a police detail isn’t available, bus drivers would not be permitted to drive the wrong way down Cemetery Street. Emergency vehicles by law are not required to have a police detail if none is available.
Residents concerned about the 19-minute detour and emergency response times during construction asked the board to open the street to two-way traffic for the duration of the project, which is expected to take four months.
The board factored safety concerns, potential liability for car crashes and the expense of preparing Cemetery Street for two-way traffic in its decision.
It would cost $212,000 to prepare the road, and another $25,000 to assess how much weight the bridge on Cemetery Street can safely hold.
Police Chief David Kurczy noted that any significant change in traffic patterns should be rolled out slowly, over the course of six months to a year, to give people time to change their driving habits.
“With the timeframe we have, I don’t think there’s a safe way to do it,” he said.
Delaying the project would likely increase its cost and could risk the town’s chance of winning a construction grant from the state. The town has applied for a $1 million grant for the $2.1 million project. It has already received $216,000 in grant funding.
Opening the street to two-way traffic would also put more stress on the 71-year-old Cemetery Street bridge, potentially shortening its lifespan.
“It’s all very tied together. When a butterfly flaps its wings, there’s a hurricane on the other side of town,” Board Chairman Jason Kutter said.
The town originally hoped to start work on the project when school lets out for the summer. Delays with the state’s review of the plans have pushed the start date to later in the summer, and residents at tonight’s meeting questioned whether that would cause construction to halt during the winter, prolonging the road closure. Another wrinkle is that a rare species restriction for Spring Brook, which runs through the culvert, prohibits construction between Jan. 1 and May 31.
Town Administrator Jeremy Stull assured the board and residents who attended the meeting that the town would push the start date to the spring of 2027 if the project doesn’t begin by Sept. 1.
“We don’t want to have the road closed until spring” he said.
The town won’t have a timeline for the project until the state review is complete and it puts the work out to bid. Residents will be kept informed of the process, including dates for road closures, via the Providence Street Culvert website.
