At a recent Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting, town officials discussed and approved some plans to move forward with the reconstruction of a portion of Nut Plains Road. The action might raise some red flags with folks who were engaged with the heated debate over a potential Nut Plains Pathway, but town officials said this work has nothing to do with a path or sidewalk—it’s just the progression of one of the town’s long-term goals to improve the condition of the road itself.

Selectmen approved a roughly $50,000 contract with Summer Hill Civil Engineers and Land Surveyors out of Madison for design services to reconstruct Nut Plains Road from Step Stone Hill Road to Goose Lane. Town Engineer Janice Plaziak said the bid is very reasonable.

“This is to move ahead a project that has been underway for a while, but has stalled with the recent changes in the engineering department and the reduced staff we have been experiencing,” said Plaziak, who was hired as Guilford town engineer a few months ago. “The town has Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program [LOTCIP] money of about $1.5 million allocated to the reconstruction. It does not include the path at this time, it is merely a road reconstruction and drainage improvements project.”

LOTCIP is a federal program that feeds grant money through the state to towns for the reconstruction of local roads that are considered feeder roads, meaning the roads connect significant parts of the town. The town applied for the money back in 2015 before the Nut Plains pathway issue arose and the money only covers construction, not engineering or design services, which is why the town approved a contract for that work.

The selectmen also wanted to reassure residents that rebuilding the road would not help advance the future possibility of a pathway or, on the flip side, eliminate the possibility. The work is just about fixing the road, sightlines, and drainage, according to Plaziak. Some of the work is made possible using the town right-of-way, which is the town-owned property that extends beyond the roadway.

“We are really trying to stay as narrowly focused in the right-of-way as possible with this project and probably the biggest impact is going to be the intersection of Nut Plains Road and Goose Lane,” she said. “We are trying to reorient that intersection. The concept plan is to try to T it up a bit so it’s not at that sharp angle that it’s at right now for safety reasons. That would probably be the area where you would see the biggest change, but there is a lot of right-of-way there, so we are really trying to minimize any impacts to adjacent properties.”

Plaziak said once the consultant has a plan, there will be a public hearing scheduled so residents can look at the design and ask questions. First Selectman Matt Hoey said the town is also trying to look at LOTCIP funding to reconstruct Goose Lane from the Nut Plains Road intersection all the way down to I-95 at Exit 59.

“That is the continuation of that connector or feeder road and we are in the mix for getting those funds,” he said. “That has been on the list of road improvements for years.”