MERIDEN - It's been nearly a year since residents of Gravel Street first saw construction crews preparing to install a water main. As crews continue to work on the project, which was expected to be finished by December, some of the residents are joining together to demand a repaved road now.

Since April 15, more than 150 area residents and Francis T. Maloney High School students have joined the group "Fix Gravel Street!" on Facebook, the social networking Web site, and members of the group said Monday they want the road repaired now.

"It seems like they are working on a different section of the road every day and it's made it difficult to figure any kind of schedule out for our children," said Danielle DeCosta, a group member who is the mother of two Nathan Hale School students and a sixth-grader at Washington Middle School.

Crews have been working along the road from Lois Drive to Baldwin Avenue since early last summer, stopping during the winter months.

DeCosta, who lives on Sunbright Drive, said daily work has created a lot of detours, and the school bus stop for her son and other Washington students has moved around several times. She said this has left her feeling uneasy and is a safety hazard for children in the area.

Other area students, including Maloney juniors Jonathan Luna and Dylan Puchel, said the work has been loud and inconsistent, and it has made them late for school and to other obligations several times in the past year.

"I went home one day and there was a detour that slowed me down. When I came back, there was a different detour and it made me late for baseball practice," Puchel said.

The Facebook group creator, Meriden resident Timothy Szypulski, could not be reached on Monday.

City Manager Lawrence J. Kendzior said Monday that he has heard a number of concerns as a result of parts of the road being left unpaved and in some areas uneven over the winter months. Crews are trying to address the problem as quickly as possible, he said.

The city had hoped to install water mains last year as part of a project that will eventually involve complete reconstruction of Gravel Street and Baldwin Avenue. Under the original plan, construction crews were to complete the project and immediately repair any part of the road that was torn up to replace the water main.

Because of bad weather and construction issues, however, the crews were only able to finish installing the pipe system and could not complete road repairs, Kendzior said. Sections of the road were "unacceptable," he said.

Kendzior said Monday that construction crews have been working on the road for about 10 days now, and the city will continue to monitor the work until the road is returned to satisfactory condition. He said construction should not take much longer.

Completion of the water main installation will let the town prepare for the reconstruction of the corridor from Lois Drive to sections of Baldwin Avenue.

"The engineering is about 95 percent complete and we expect the federal stimulus funding will allow us to move forward with the project," Kendzior said.

The $10 million project, which would use more than $8 million in federal stimulus funding, will involve demolition, redesign and repaving of the corridor, according to Public Works Director Robert J. Bass. Cardinal Engineering of Meriden has been selected for the design stages and has begun a survey of the corridor, Bass said.

Bass said the city is prepared to conduct the reconstruction in a manner that would enhance drainage and improve the road so that it remains smooth and level for years to come.

Bass said the city could begin construction in the next year and the project would be completed within two years, but no starting date or timetable has been set.

jvallee@record-journal.com
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