Work begins to reconstruct Cross Street

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Cross Street in Naugatuck is undergoing a $3.35 million reconstruction project. –LUKE MARSHALL

NAUGATUCK — After years of planning, the Cross Street reconstruction project is underway.

Crews started work on the project on April 1, Public Works Director James Stewart said.

The first part of the project is realigning the Cross Street and Cotton Hollow Road intersection. The two roads intersect at an angle now. According to the plans, the two roads will be realigned so they meet at a T-intersection.

The project will also include full-depth reconstruction of the 4,150 feet of Cross Street from Route 8 to New Haven Road, horizontal and vertical realignments, and widening the street to a uniform 30 feet, as well as a new storm drainage system, curbing, retaining walls, sidewalks and guiderails.

“The road is getting widened and improved,” Stewart said.

The state bought two residential properties at 16 Cotton Hollow Road and 10 Cotton Hollow Road and demolished the houses to straighten the road and the intersection. The demolition work was completed earlier this year. The work also required the state to acquire small portions of a dozen properties along Cross Street.

Stewart said the work will continue this year as long as weather allows and resume in the spring of 2020. The project is expected to be completed by July 2020, he said.

The road is one lane with alternating traffic for now, Stewart said. Once the school year ends in June and buses and parents do not need to drive to Cross Street Intermediate School, the road will become a one-way road with traffic only allowed to travel from New Haven Road to Route 8, Stewart said.

Traffic coming off Route 8 and heading toward New Haven Road will be detoured onto Cotton Hollow Road to Beacon Valley Road, Stewart said. In preparation for the added traffic, the borough will be repaving the portion of Beacon Valley Road near New Haven Road, he added.

In January, the Board of Mayor and Burgesses awarded a $3.35 million contract for the project to Bloomfield-based Mather’s Construction. Federal funds will cover 80 percent of the cost of the project. The state will pay for 10 percent, leaving the borough to pick up the remaining 10 percent, or about $335,000.