ESSEX JUNCTION — The famous Five Corners intersection could be reduced to a four-way intersection and a series of new buildings are planned for the area as well.
Five new multi-use buildings with more than 200 apartments, retail space, and a new cross street will be complete within the next five years. A community park is also under discussion.
Whether to close Main Street, which would turn the intersection into a four-way, would require further study.
The lot for the first building, at 3 Maple Street, has been cleared and underground utility work is underway. Developers will erect one building at a time to reduce construction impact.
Developers have named the project “Chittenden Crossing.”
For the Village’s community development director, Robin Pierce, the new buildings and road will greatly improve traffic flow at the busy intersection and make Essex Junction a more walkable community.
Pierce said many projects have been considered for the area over the last eight years, before the Village approved a plan to work with South Burlington-based BlackRock Construction for the buildings.
The 3 Maple Street building is set to be completed by the “first quarter of 2021,” BlackRock’s Vice President of Development Ben Avery said.
“I think the revitalization of a core downtown at the Five Corners makes natural sense,” Avery said. “The Five Corners is an interesting area because it truly lends itself to being a walkable downtown.”
The new four-story building at 3 Maple Street will have 30 apartments and a ground floor wood-fired pizza restaurant, operated by the same group who brought Grazers to Williston and St. Albans. Some of the apartments will be affordable housing, Pierce said. Avery said rental rates haven’t been finalized yet, but it will be a “market rate building.”
The remaining buildings will be constructed in phases over the next four years, starting with two buildings behind the existing space at 34 Park Street.
Pierce said construction of the new “connector road,” which he said the Village plans to name “Railroad Street,” will begin shortly after the Maple Street building is complete. It will connect Park, Maple and Main Streets to create a back channel drivers can use to avoid the congested intersection.
Railroad and pedestrian crossing signs will be added or upgraded throughout the Five Corners. When a train is passing through, all the lights will turn red. Sidewalks along Railroad Street will be added and portions of the roads leading into the intersection will be repaved and bike lanes added, Pierce said.
The Five Corners intersection is notoriously congested, and Pierce said one of the larger goals of the entire project is to reduce that congestion. The connector road will help divert traffic around Five Corners, but the addition of a small community park, if approved, will bring the intersection down from five roads, to four.
The park will be built next to the existing Veterans Memorial Park in front of the TD Bank, closing off Main Street from Five Corners to the intersection with Railroad Street. Pierce said it will be split between grass and a paved surface with a small stage for bands to play summer concerts, for example.
Currently, each of the five roads leading to the intersection have their own light sequence, with pedestrian crossing making a total of six light sequences, Pierce said. If Main Street is removed leading into Five Corners, that light sequence will be reduced to just two.
“You look at some communities and they give up the heart of their community to move traffic,” Pierce said. “We’re actually taking back the heart of our community to move traffic, so it’s a different approach.”
Pearl and Maple Streets will have a green light at the same time, with Park and Lincoln Streets the other pair. Pedestrians will cross with the flow of traffic. All the changes depend on Main Street being closed.
“Instead of waiting three and a half minutes at the traffic light, it’ll be a thirty second wait,” Pierce said.
A model prepared by the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission found that during evening peak traffic hours, every road leading into the intersection will be cleared before the next red light, Pierce said.
The stop line will also be moved further into the intersection, increasing the number of cars passing through per traffic signal and shortening the distance pedestrians have to cross.
“That will be a dramatic improvement, not just for people, but reducing pollution,” Pierce said, adding it will be much safer for pedestrians.
Pierce said these upgrades are “a long way off” and will be coming as part of the finishing touches on the project, but believes his vision is the best way to open up the village, provide more opportunity for residents and improve traffic flow.
The road work will be 100% funded with state and federal dollars, Pierce said, but the connector road hasn’t been put out to bid yet, so a contractor has yet to be selected.
Avery said the total cost of the project is about $50 million, with funding coming from a mix of internal funds and private investments.
“It’ll take time, but it’s gonna work,” Pierce said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Main Street would close and that a community park would be built. Both are proposals under consideration.
