SOUTHWICK – Residents and visitors to the town will have to endure road construction beyond the original Aug. 8 completion date.
Road work to widen and create sidewalks on College Highway has been underway for more than a year. Two weeks ago, the Department of Transportation, the state entity in charge of the project, gave an updated schedule to the town, but still had Aug. 8 as the target date of completion. Now, that date has been pushed back more than a month.
“I received a notice from the DOT that due to utility pole issues the new completion date is in September,” said Southwick department of Public Works Director Jeffrey Neece.
In addition to the lag in moving of poles, several utility poles were actually set in the middle of the sidewalk. Neece said this was done in the area of Coes Hill Road in order to preserve a historical Sycamore tree. A few mailboxes also set in the middle of the sidewalk are temporary, said Neece.
‘They will be moved,” he said. ‘People need to wait for the project to be done before judging it.”
