Government

Town To Make Weed-and-Elm a Three-Way Stop

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After years of wrangling about it, town officials decided this week to make the intersection at Elm and Weed Streets a three-way stop. Currently, there’s only a stop sign for motorists on Elm Street, approaching Weed. Police say they’ve received an increasing number in complaints in recent years about motorists ignoring pedestrians trying to get across Weed, including many who are coming to or from Irwin Park. “Obviously there’s a high volume of pedestrian traffic there, to get to Irwin and back from Irwin,” Police Chief John DiFederico said Tuesday night during a regular meeting of the Police Commission, New Canaan’s designated local traffic authority. “Although it’s a real flat road there, if you’re coming south on Weed Street there’s a bit of a crown in the road, and it’s difficult to see the intersection as you approach on Weed Street from the north,” DiFederico said during the meeting, held at police headquarters and via videoconference.

Government

DPW: ‘Western Lot’ Next to Waveny House Two Weeks from Reopening

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The repaved and reconfigured “western lot” near Waveny House is two weeks from reopening, officials say. Approved this summer after the Board of Selectmen called for more information, the approximately $480,000 project will see the number of spaces double in the heavily used lot. “It’s coming out very nice,” Public Works Director Tiger Mann told NewCanaanite.com in an interview. 

The contractor has remade the western side of the lot with “pervious pavers” instead of asphalt, which will help with drainage, Mann said. “He’s got all the granite in,” he said. “He’s working on the grading on one side, and he’s already started to grade the other side, the sidewalk.

News

Playhouse Lot: Work Underway for New Dumpster Enclosure; New Ramp in LPQ Allée To Start

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The new dumpster enclosure that’s going into the parking lot behind The Playhouse is progressing on time, officials said Tuesday, and it’s taking steps this week toward completion. The contractor working in the Playhouse Lot is planning to pour walls for the dumpster on Friday, and soon will start building a ramp from that lot down to the alley or ‘allée’ between the movie theater and Le Pain Quotidien, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “I was pushing for Thursday,” Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. Mann continued: “And he [the contractor] has got a little bit of forming work left to do, and then the contractor will be looking to start the excavation Thursday-Friday on the ramp going down on the allée. So at that point in time, we’ll have to take that [the current staircase] out of service since it’ll be under construction.

Government

‘That Is a Milestone’: At Last, Pine Street To Be Repaved

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Municipal officials are poised to approve a contract Tuesday to repave the very last road in New Canaan to get a new surface under the town’s comprehensive 21-year-old program. 

The Board of Selectmen will vote on an approximately $525,000 contract, including a contingency, with a Norwalk-based company to do the work on Pine Street—about $25,000 less than an original estimate, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “That will start some time around Oct. 1 and go through the rest of the season,” Mann told members of the Town Council Infrastructure & Utilities Committee during its Sept. 12 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “And that is a milestone for us, me, our DPW in general, because that is the last road in town that needs to be paved since we started our pavement management program in 2004,” he continued. 

Public Works officials had said when the program got underway that it would take 20 years to do all the roads “and it’s pretty much exactly 20 years,” Mann said. 

“We were done a year ago but Pine Street was the only outlier,” he said.

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State Plans To Install More Centerline ‘Rumble Strips’ in New Canaan; Public Hearing Tuesday

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[The NewCanaanite.com Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Karp Associates.]

The Connecticut Department of Transportation is planning to install more “rumble strips” on roads in New Canaan. A remote public hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday for the the rumble strips planned for Route 123/Smith Ridge Road from North Wilton Road to the town line, and Route 124/Oenoke Ridge from Country Club Road to Luke’s Woods Road, according to Director of Public Works Tiger Mann. The state Department of Transportation notified the town in March of its intention, saying in a letter that “[c]enterline rumble strips are a cost-effective, proven safety countermeasure that substantially reduce the risks of head-on, sideswipe opposite direction and roadway departure crashes.” “The grooves produce sound and vibration inside the vehicle intended to alert distracted or drowsy drivers that they have unintentionally crossed the centerline,” according to the letter from Matthew Blume, division chief of traffic engineering in ConnDOT’s Bureau of Engineering and Construction. The centerline rumble strips are being installed because the roads have been repaved, Mann said. 

The hearing has been scheduled because “the town requested it in response to the DOT’s proposed installation of rumble strips,” Mann said.  

“On Route 124, the houses are closer to the road than they are on Rte.