West Hartford’s Engineering Division has advised the roadways that are scheduled for reconstruction in 2025 and the first round of resurfacing, with some routes requiring occasional traffic detours. Work on replacement of the Fern Street Bridge is also scheduled to take place in 2025.

By Ronni Newton

Road construction season begins the week of May 11, and a number of West Hartford streets are scheduled for complete reconstruction that includes installation of granite curbing and concrete driveway aprons, catch basin replacement, selective concrete sidewalk replacement, re-establishment of the roadway base material, and paving, while others will be milled and repaved.

West Hartford has 217 miles of roadways maintained by the town, and on average 8.5 miles are repaved each year, with some of those roadways being fully reconstructed. Based on annual assessment by the Engineering Division, road conditions are rated from “excellent” to “extremely poor” and those in the latter category are prioritized for repaving, with the schedule also impacted and coordinated with infrastructure work scheduled by utility companies. According to the town, in 2024 there were 17 miles of roadway rated as “extremely poor,” and those are the focus of the repaving. There were also 34 miles of roadway rated as “poor” in a 2024 assessment.

Just over nine miles of roadway was resurfaced in 2024, according to the Engineering Division.

2024 Pavement Conditions map. Town of West Hartford website

Resurfacing

Town Engineer Greg Sommer said the following roads – in this order – are tentatively scheduled for resurfacing this season:

• Asylum Avenue (Trout Brook Drive to Steele Road)
• Kane Street (work to take place at night to minimize impact on traffic)
• Mountain Road (Boulevard to Buena Vista Road)
• Raymond Road (work to take place at night to minimize impact on traffic)
• Sedgwick Road (Buena Vista Road to Ridgewood Road)
• Trout Brook Drive (Boulevard to Park Road – work to take place at night to minimize impact on traffic)

According to the Engineering Division, the milling of the existing roadway is expected to take four to five days, and will be followed by approximately two weeks of paving. Daytime work generally occurs between the hours of 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

“Motorists are reminded to be cautious while traveling on the milled surface and alert for raised manhole structures. Please seek alternate routes if possible,” the town said in the announcement of the plans. Police officers and flaggers will assist with traffic control while the work is actively underway.

The first round of road resurfacing will begin the week of May 11. Two additional rounds will follow in the summer and fall. They will be posted on the Engineering webpage on the Town of West Hartford website.

Reconstruction

In 2025, King Philip Drive (from Fuller Drive to Tumble Brook Lane) is tentatively scheduled to be reconstructed during the summer. That work is estimated to take one to two months to complete.

Fern Street Bridge

The Fern Street Bridge over Trout Brook, which was originally constructed in 1939, is in need of replacement, and is nearing final design, Town Engineer Greg Sommer said, and should be going out to bid later this spring or summer with demolition of the existing bridge and construction beginning later this year.

The Fern Street bridge will be replaced in 2025. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

“That project blossomed,” Director of Community Development Duane Martin told We-Ha.com earlier this year. He said that as plans developed, it was determined that the watercourse, which goes through Fernridge Park, needs to be realigned where it goes under the bridge, and it will be shifted slightly east, toward the pond.

Also as part of the project, the Metropolitan District Commission determined that a 42-inch water main needs replacement, and that main can’t be taken out of service during the summer. The sequencing of the water main replacement will be coordinated with the bridge replacement, Sommer said. Martin added that there will be “very brief, if any, disruption” to water service.

While some residents have expressed concern regarding the condition of the bridge, and the shift in traffic, “It is safe,” Sommer said.”The DOT gave us options to either reduce the load or shift traffic, and we did the latter.”

The bridge will remain open to traffic during the course of the project, with an alternating one-lane configuration, managed with a temporary traffic signal, Martin said.

The traffic has been shifted on Fern Street at the request of the CTDOT. Feb. 5, 2025 photo by Ronni Newton

Updated on roadway projects can be found on the Engineering Division webpage on the Town of West Hartford website.

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