Route 1 Project - Weekly Update (5-19-15)
FALMOUTH ROUTE ONE INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT
Construction Update #37 – May 19, 2015
The following information reflects the latest available information regarding the Route One Infrastructure Project in Falmouth. Please note that forward-looking information is based upon projections and is subject to change due to weather and other variables.
WORK HOURS:
Work in the Route One Infrastructure Project zone for the remainder of this week – and, if necessary, next week – will begin at approximately 6:00 a.m. and last until approximately 4:30 p.m. In addition, some overnight work will be occurring in select locations.
GENERAL OVERVIEW:
We hope you had a safe and enjoyable winter. This issue marks the resumption of weekly updates related to work along the Route One corridor. As always, special updates will be made as needed.
Over the winter, you may have noticed utility companies pulling lines through the duct bank that was installed last year. CMP and Time Warner have completed their cable and wiring installations; Oxford Networks and Fairpoint are still pulling lines.
This construction season will be shorter – and, overall, far less disruptive than last season’s work. Key projects you’ll see during the next few months include:
• Cutovers by utilities to individual properties and businesses. This means that the utilities serving businesses will be connected to the underground utilities. Because these cutovers are being managed by individual subcontractors and won’t significantly impact traffic along the corridor itself, we generally won’t make mention of them here. If you own or operate a business along Route One, you’ll be contacted by the utilities (or their contractors) to schedule the cutovers.
• Landscaping. Crews from Sargent Corporation are installing topsoil and hydro-seeding lawn areas and new esplanades; The installation of street trees will follow in the coming months.
• Removal of overhead utilities. Once cutovers have been completed to all businesses, overhead utility wires and utility poles will be removed, vastly improving the viewscapes along the corridor. Please note that some utilities may remove their wires from poles at different times; this may have some minor impact on traffic in the future. We’ll keep you posted.
• Installation of new traffic signals, pedestrian signals and street lighting. We’ll keep you advised when this work will start; most of this work should only have minimal, if any, impact on traffic.
• Installation of median traffic islands. Several traffic islands will be installed later this summer, to facilitate traffic flow in and out of key business areas along the corridor. This work is likely to impact traffic during construction (and improve its flow afterwards). We’ll give you as much advance information as we can.
• Grinding and paving: As part of an existing DOT contract, Route One will be scarified and then repaved along the corridor route. This process is expected to be the last major traffic disruption involved in the project.
• There are other, minor projects in various locations along the corridor. Few, if any of these, are expected to create significant traffic disruptions.
WORK CURRENTLY UNDERWAY:
As of Tuesday, May 19, crews were working on – or have completed – the following:
• Moulison North and CMP are working on cutovers of individual businesses, in order to bring underground electrical service to those businesses.
• Sargent is backfilling sidewalk areas with topsoil, finish grading and hydro-seeding.
• Fairpoint and Oxford Networks are continuing with cable pulls. Fairpoint is also working on risers where fiber optic cable exits the duct bank and returns to overhead service.
WORK YOU’RE LIKELY TO SEE THROUGH THE END OF THIS WEEK:
• Continuation of the above projects
• General cleanup along the corridor.
PHOTOGRAPHS: 
Here, we see a crew from Sargent Corporation replacing the loam in lawn and esplanade areas (the loam is coming from that huge pile within the loop to the Turnpike spur. That location will also serve as the staging area for the trees that will be planted along the corridor later this summer).
We’re looking north; that’s Bangor Savings Bank center right (and the base for a street lamp lower right). This area has been loamed and hydro-seeded. You can expect more of this in the upcoming weeks.
Fairpoint is still pulling fiber optic cable in various locations along the corridor. In this image, we see a crew wrapping up a pull through the duct bank crossing under Route One.