The Middlebury Bridge and Rail Project — a four-year push to replace two bridges in downtown Middlebury with a rail tunnel, add new parks and resurface roads — is nearly finished.
Though it was originally slated for completion by Aug. 17, work on the Middlebury Bridge and Rail Project is not quite finished. Middlebury community liaison Jim Gish said the timeline was extended to the Tuesday after Labor Day because complicated grading for the new Lazarus Park in Printer’s Alley caused delays.
With just a few weeks to go, Gish said construction crews are focused on milling and repaving roads downtown. Milling — removal of the top layer of asphalt — will occur this week, Gish said, and paving is slated for next week.
Construction crews also plan to pave the road from Main Street to Marble Works and restore the riverbank near Otter Creek along which the railroad tracks run, Gish said.
Work on a separate VTrans project — a new passenger rail station that could connect Middlebury to Amtrak’s Ethan Allen Express route — is also well underway, and the rail platform should be completed next month, Gish said.
Gish said he has no updates on when Amtrak may extend its services to the new Middlebury platform but said the state is still estimating 2022.
“We’ll be ready when they are,” he said.
The bridge and rail project has been challenging for the Middlebury community. A 10-week road closure last summer disrupted the downtown, though many businesses had already needed to modify operations because of the pandemic.
Though some work still lies ahead, community members have organized a celebration of the project’s completion scheduled for Saturday.
Events begin at noon, with a dedication ceremony for Lazarus Park, named for the family who owned a department store in the park’s location, Gish said. The Vermont secretary of transportation, the Middlebury Selectboard chair, and Lazarus family relatives and friends are expected to attend, Gish said.
Neighbors Together — a group of several community organizations, including the Town Hall Theater and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church — organized Saturday’s events, Gish said.
Beyond the dedication ceremony, the celebration will bring circus street performers to town, said Lisa Mitchell, executive director of the Town Hall Theater. The celebration is dubbed “Foolaroo” in a nod to the annual Foodaroo food and performance festival that was held in pre-pandemic years.
Performances are funded by the Town Hall Theater and many of the other events were paid for by a VTrans grant Neighbors Together received, said Karen Duguay, executive director of Better Middlebury Partnership.
The celebration will also feature giveaways, sidewalk sales and snacks, Duguay said.
Several empty storefronts will soon be filled, now that the Kick Start Middlebury program has offered grants to six winning businesses, Duguay said. Saturday’s events will feature previews of some of the businesses to come, Mitchell said.
Though a celebration at the end of the bridge and rail project has been in the works for a while, Duguay said, Neighbors Together has had to adapt, based on pandemic conditions. She hopes the events, spread out over several locations and four hours, will allow people to remain socially distanced.
“We really still wanted to have that celebratory feeling, but in a way that felt spaced out and safe for folks,” Duguay said.
Some downtown stores are also now requiring that all customers wear masks again, she said.
“We just hope that people come out, distance and enjoy some live entertainment and have a great opportunity to celebrate together,” Mitchell said.
