Daytime College Street closings needed as road project continues
Drivers can expect to find a block of College Street in Washington to be closed as work begins in earnest to reconstruct the road between Highland Avenue and East Maiden Street.
Work began last month with the closure of the left lane. The reconstruction is part of a two-phase Route 19 corridor project that began last year with the rebuilding of Lincoln Street. The remaining phase will begin later this year with the demolition of several buildings in the area of Highland and Ridge avenues and with the realigning of the College and Locust Avenue intersection.
Plans initially called for maintaining traffic flow on the right side of the street while work was being done in the left lane.
“But that wasn’t feasible to do,” said Scott Faieta, assistant construction engineer overseeing the project for the state Department of Transportation. “So we will do block closures as needed.”
Faieta said it was too difficult to keep the street open with the arm of equipment swinging into traffic or over the sidewalk.
The closures for the most part will be from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday. Fridays will be used as a make-up day in the event of work stoppages earlier in the week due to inclement weather. The right lane will be open to traffic at night and on weekends. Work is now being done in the block between East Wheeling and East Maiden streets.