(Host) It’s the summer construction season and dozens of highway projects are under way around the state.
One of those is the road improvement project through the center of Ludlow.
An upgrade to Route 103 that started about a year ago is almost done.
As VPR’s Lynne McCrea reports, construction comes with its share of headaches.
(McCrea) The work along Ludlow’s busy main street includes new crosswalks, road resurfacing, and improved curbing.
Frank Heald is Municipal Manager in Ludlow. He says the project has required some sacrifices this summer.
(Heald) "We’ve worked hard to maintain circulation through the village, but obviously there have been delays, there’ve been times when parking spaces were being reconstructed so folks couldn’t park on the street, so it’s had its ups and downs."
(McCrea) The downs’ have been experienced by some of Ludlow’s businesses. Kendra Stocker is co-owner of The Hatchery, a restaurant on Main Street.
(Stocker) "Quite a few headaches for us because as they were paving, they shut down the parking and you couldn’t find a place to park. And then, with the Woodstock Bridge shutting down, that put all the truck traffic through Ludlow, which was really quite the traffic jams were phenomenal. They were just out of this world."
(McCrea) Stocker says her business was hurt by road paving over the 4th of July holiday weekend. She wonders whether work could have been scheduled differently, even with Vermont’s short construction season
(Stocker) "I’ve traveled a lot of the country and seen a lot of this done at night and didn’t understand why this couldn’t have been approached a little differently."
(McCrea) As the project wraps up, Municipal Manager Frank Heald says most people feel the improvements are worth the inconvenience.
(Heald) "Well the main street through the village is smooth, the crosswalks are all done in bright red brick a brick pattern inlay with white stripes. It just plain freshens up the whole look of the village and makes the ride through town smoother."
(Host) Heald says there are still a few finishing details, but that the Ludlow Village road project is now functionally complete’.
For VPR News, I’m Lynne McCrea.