The latest phase of a Main Street improvement project that has been underway since 2011 is heading toward a spring 2020 start. The Main Street Project Committee held special meeting was on Aug. 20 to help inform residents and merchants about Phase Three of the Main Street Project, which will focus on the heart of Chester village between Route 148 and the Laurel Hill cemetery entrance.

The project involves many details including granite curbing, new catch basins and sidewalks, cast-iron-post LED lighting, removable bollards, stair grades in some areas, asphalt parking places, new plantings of both trees and low-maintenance flowers, powder-coated trash receptacles and bike racks, improvements to the flagpole circle, two new crosswalks, benches, the relocation of a fire hydrant on Maple Street, road grade changes, and signage to direct visitors to public parking lots available on Maple Street and Water Street.

Aaron Mortensen of Nathan L. Jacobson and Associates Consulting Civil and Environmental Engineers and landscape architect Brian Kent from Kent + Frost Landscape Architecture helped explain some of the main points of the upcoming project.

“The project will create a uniform, safe sidewalk for residents and visitors,” explained Kent.

The plan calls for planting streetside trees, including two different kinds of maple trees, lilac trees, and two varieties of flowering pear trees.

“In the past some of the trees that had been planted interfered with the buildings and power lines. The trees we plan on planting won’t grow large enough to interfere with any buildings or powerlines,” said Kent.

A $2.3 million grant from the state is anticipated once the final plans are submitted and approved.

The hope, Mortensen explained, is to have those plans to the Lower Connecticut River Valley Council of Governments (RiverCog), no later than Sunday, Sept. 15, so they can be approved and sent onto the state. Once those plans are reviewed and sent back to the town, the project will go out to bid in mid-December. The hope is to have all bids in by the third week of January 2020, then its back to the state for another review and projected start of construction date of sometime in mid-March, depending on weather conditions.

Mortensen explained that getting the design contract ready to go has been the hardest part. There are still a couple of easements and temporary rights of way that need to be obtained from private property owners, as well as agreements about lighting that is on private property that the town attorney is currently looking into. In addition, drainage easement documents need to be obtained.

The hope is that the project will take three to four months to complete, so there is as little disturbance to downtown businesses as possible. The committee will be meeting with the Chester Merchants group sometime in the next two weeks to get more input from the group in regard to how they propose the best approach to the project be addressed.

Suzie Woodward, owner of Lark on Water Street, was at the Aug. 20 meeting, and expressed concern about the project’s impact on the businesses in the downtown area.

Chester businesses had experienced major traffic disruption in 2016, when replacement of the Main Street Bridge blocked traffic from January to May in the town center.

Mortensen explained that the intent is to have at least one-way traffic flowing at all times and that minimizing disturbance to store fronts, foot traffic, and parking will be considered at all times.

Committee Chair Mike Joplin explained that taking the approach of the least disturbance will take more time and perhaps more money, where as a faster route may result in more disturbance to businesses, but will take less time. Joplin will be meeting with merchants soon to discuss the matter further.