BERLIN – A portion of Main Street will be closed in the coming weeks as crews make sewer repairs.
Main Street will be closed to through traffic between Route 346 and Route 50 beginning Monday, May 11, as crews begin a sewer repair project. Town Administrator Laura Allen expects the closures to last several weeks.
“Residents will have access during construction,” Allen said.
She said the work stems from a sewer project conducted along that stretch of roadway last year.
“There were issues with the way the contractor handled the piping,” she said. “We need to go back in and correct that.”
Allen said the road would be closed between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday as the contractor worked on the pipes. She said town officials made sure to limit the work to weekdays so the road would be open for travel on Saturday and Sunday.
The work is expected to take two to three weeks to complete.
Allen said that if the work is not finished by May 21, the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend, the contractor is required to close the road up so that traffic will not be impacted during the holiday weekend.
“It’s hard to tell exactly how many days the project will take to complete because of the nature of the work and our dependence on the weather,” Allen said. “We recognize the importance of the Memorial Day weekend to our residents and guests. If the project is still underway as we approach that weekend, the contractor has been directed to stop work on May 21, button up the project so the roadway is open, and commence work on Tuesday, May 26.”
Allen said ideally the project would have been done earlier in the year but weather prevented that from happening. She stressed that even while work was underway residents of that portion of Main Street would be able to access their homes.
She said officials would be monitoring the work intently in the coming weeks.
“We’re watching the project closely,” she said.