By Brandon T. Bisceglia
Cars line up along a stretch of the Boston Post Road in Orange where the road narrows to one lane in each direction for a construction project that will last until 2022. Photo by Steve Cooper.
A project to widen a busy section of the Boston Post Road in Orange between Lambert Road and Racebrook Road will take until the summer of 2022 to complete – more than a year longer than originally planned, according to the state Department of Transportation.
The road is being widened to accommodate a center turn lane, similar to a previous project that stretched from Racebrook road to the West Haven city line. It will also replace a culvert that carries Silver Brook under the road.
The two-lane stretch has been narrowed to one lane in each direction, significantly slowing traffic on the heavily used Boston Post Road, also known as Route 1. Traffic on June 26, a Saturday afternoon, was backed up leading to a stoplight near the end of the construction.
The culvert under the roadway near the Chips Restaurant is 22 meters long, according to Daniel P. Stafko, the transportation supervising engineer for the District 3 Office of Construction responsible for the project.
“The new drainage to include the culvert and the existing underground utilities will require the grade of Route 1 to increase approximately 18 inches at the crest and tie into the existing grade at the project limits,” he said.
“This new elevation of roadway will require the regrading of all driveways and portions of the parking lots of adjacent businesses by approximately 12 inches at the peak and less at the project limits and taper down to the existing grade of the limits within the parking lots,” Stafko explained.
The project has been underway for several years now, having formally started date in November 2017. It was supposed to be completed by June 12, 2020, but that was extended to the 2022 last year for what Stafko called “utility and design changes to work around utilities.”
In addition to the road work itself, the project requires the relocation of 28 United Illuminating poles and aerial wires for several utilities, the relocation of segments of the water main serviced by the Regional Water Authority as well as numerous service connections, the relocation of segments of the Southern Connecticut Gas main and service connections, and the realignment of an AT&T utility duct bank of 24 steel conduits across the culvert.
The contractor for the work is Northern Construction Services. According to Stafko, the original contract value was $4.8 million, but has since risen to $4.9 million. As of June 1, $1.3 million of the cost had been paid.
This will not be the last time motorists passing through Orange face major roadwork. Eventually the entirety of the Boston Post Road to the Milford line will be widened. The last phase may also include replacing the bridge carrying Indian River under Route 1, according to Orange Director of Public Works Robert H. Brinton.
The last phase is expected to cost between $14 million and $18 million, according to the state, with 80 percent of the funding coming from the federal government. An information sheet provided to the Milford-Orange Times from the DOT’s communications office said the specifics of traffic operations during construction for the last phase have not been developed, “but it is anticipated that the existing number of lanes of traffic on US Route 1 will be maintained Monday through Friday from the early morning through the evening and one lane of traffic will be maintained in each direction, including turning lanes, in the later evening. Alternating one-way traffic may be utilized during nighttime operations.”
The state expects to advertise for construction in the spring of 2023 and start construction in the summer. It will take approximately two years to complete.
“This project is still under design,” Brinton said. “I believe that a public information meeting will be held soon for this project.”