City of Bradford officials remind area residents that at approximately 8 a.m. today a partial shutdown of Main Street and East Main Street to East Avenue will take place for milling of the road, followed by paving of the same area on Thursday.
Bradford City Director of Public Works Chip Comilla said on Monday that the milling project by IA Construction Corp. will start near the area of Main Street by the railroad tracks at Rookie’s Sports Bar and continue another 2,177 feet to East Avenue, which is less than half a mile. The work is sorely needed in that area as the road is pocked with potholes and rough surface.
“They’re going to (mill) around the tracks before the trains start coming, they’ll clear that all out and then they’re going to move up East Main Street,” Comilla explained. “They’ve got a machine that grinds (the street surface) up and the dump truck drives in front of them. It goes in a conveyer and goes right in the bin.”
He said one lane at a time is expected to be milled, and if not too congested, traffic will be allowed to drive through on the open lane. If it is viewed as unsafe for traffic, however, the road will be shut down in that stretch of street while milling is taking place.
Comilla said there will be no construction activity on Wednesday due to the company’s scheduling, therefore traffic will be allowed to travel through that area. Paving will be conducted on Thursday with traffic likely to be diverted from driving through the construction area, Comilla continued.
He has noted that the city road crew planned to place notices at each of the residences in that area to inform residents they would need to move their cars off the street for the project.
Comilla has stated that Mill Street will be open for traffic, as well as Williams Street, Jackson and Kendall avenues for rerouted traffic.
He also has noted that the section of road by the Eagles Club, where the road had been crumbling in recent years, will be a no-parking zone. In addition, a new sidewalk constructed in that area has been moved into the old parking lane and is now concrete.
Another ongoing project in the downtown area that is rerouting traffic can be found at the Forman Street bridge.
The bridge has been officially closed for repairs the past couple of weeks. While the U.S. Route 219 exit remains open to allow access to Hilton Street or to re-enter Route 219 northbound, there is no access to downtown from the exit. An access road has been temporarily installed for the Holiday Inn Express and for emergency personnel only. Regular traffic is required to follow the posted detours or find another suitable alternate route.
Work is supposed to take place through late October.
