West Hartford’s Engineering Division has advised the roadways that are scheduled for reconstruction in 2024 and the first round of resurfacing, with some routes requiring occasional traffic detours. Trout Brook Trail is also slated for completion in 2024.

By Ronni Newton

Road construction season begins the week of May 13, 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.

Screenshot of pavement conditions map from Town of West Hartford website

According to the town, 19 miles of roadway were rated “extremely poor” in 2023, and 36 miles were rated as “poor.”

Reconstruction

Town Engineer Greg Sommer said the following roads – in this order – are tentatively scheduled to be reconstructed this season:

• St. Augustine Street
• Highland Street
• Warwick Street (from Trout Brook Drive to Robin Road)
• Pleasant Street

The work on Highland Street, will take place over the summer, while school is out, so it will not impact Bristow Middle School, Sommer told We-Ha.com.

Each reconstruction project takes roughly one to two months to complete.

Resurfacing

“We plan to do three rounds again,” Sommer said of the roadway resurfacing. The first round begins May 13, and additional rounds of repaving will be scheduled to begin in July and September.

Included in the first round of resurfacing are:

• Boulevard (Riggs Avenue to South Main Street)
• Brunswick Avenue
• Keeney Avenue
• Talcott Road (Quaker Lane South to Grassmere Road)
• Trout Brook Drive (Clarendon Drive to South Quaker Lane)

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. Work generally occurs between the hours of 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Trout Brook Trail

The final phase of Trout Brook Trail construction is scheduled to take place during 2024, Sommer said. Design is being completed for the remaining 3,900-foot section – between Jackson Avenue and Park Road. This section, Phase 3 of the overall trail, will be separated from Trout Brook Drive, along the west side of the roadway.

The project, which is funded by a grant, will be going out to bid soon and according to Sommer plans are to complete construction by the end of the 2024 season.

Phase 3 has been the most complex to design because of the proximity of the I-84 overpasses and the required narrowing of Trout Brook Drive.

The multi-user trail, a linear park which is primarily off-road, 10-feet wide, is intended for use by pedestrians as well as bicyclists. It has been built in phases, and when complete will eventually extend more than 3.5 miles, from New Park Avenue to Asylum Avenue. The phases are numbered by blocks – each about a half-mile in length – from south to north, but have not been built in numerical order. The first phase to be completed, Phase 4, which runs between Park Road and Farmington Avenue, opened in 2008. Phase 1, from New Park to South Quaker Lane, opened in 2009.

Trout Brook Trail sign at Jackson Avenue. Photo credit: Ronni Newton (we-ha.com file photo)

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

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