ROCKLAND, Maine — The final phase of a downtown road and sidewalk construction project restarts Monday morning.
The city issued a statement Thursday that the work is being done earlier than the city had originally planned because the Maine Department of Transportation informed Rockland that the state-funded project is required to be completed by Oct. 15. The city had planned on waiting until later in the fall to do the work to reduce the disruption to Main Street businesses during the busier September and October tourist season.
“In order to ensure work is completed by this deadline, and to avoid disrupting the Columbus Day holiday as well as the cruise ship visits to Rockland scheduled for late September and early October, we determined that resuming the work on Sept. 10 would be the most advantageous time to complete the work and then move off Main Street with as little disruption as possible,” the city stated.
Work is expected to be completed by Sept. 27. The work includes installation of a new crosswalk at the east end of Lindsey Street, a new crosswalk on Main Street by Lindsey Street, repair work to the sidewalk in front of the Rockland Cafe, relocation of two street lights and fire hydrant on the east side of Main Street between Lindsey and Summer streets, and repairs to any work done during the spring and late June that was not satisfactorily done.
The city states that only one lane will be closed at a time during the work.
Are they going to pave that minefield of a street first . . . before they lay all of that brickwork across the middle of the street? Or, are they going to wait and tear the street up to pave it AFTER, they complete all of that work? The streets of Rockland are a disgrace, from the Bagel Shop all the way to the Owls Head town line on both Union and Main St’s.
Absolutely right. RIDICULOUS waste of taxpayers’ money; no matter where the funding is coming from. Now they are complaining about the waterfront walkway having grass between the bricks. Whoopdy do.
I have been here a few years and never seen a road paved. Time for the residents to take over the City.I am sure the Down time likes the idea of work being done this time of year.
The Rockland town council (or at least the ones who approved this moronic venture) should be run out of town with pitch forks. First off who in their right mind puts in brick crosswalks in the frost heave capitol of the USA. Take a look at the brick sidewalk on either School or Museum st. (can’t remember which it is on) it looks like one of those wave pools at a water park.
Second get it through your thick skulls that we DO NOT have the amount of millionaires that Camden does. As much as it sucks Rockland has become a junkie town. In the last 2 years I have had to call the police at least 5 times because I saw hypodermic needles on the ground as I was walking, one was right in my driveway next to my kids basketball hoop. But the city council must have blinders on for things like that, the things that really matter. Nope we need brick crosswalks and to be noticed as a museum town (now aren’t we special), all the artwork in the world will not distract money holding tourists from seeing the disgrace we have let this town become.
Third why do we need some architectural dynamo of a courthouse? Bricks, bars and guards is all we need to build a courthouse, instead we built a castle so the real crooks (like our own DA) can feel important as they wear their suits and dresses and stare down at us from the bench.
I will give a shout out to the Rockland PD who have taken a real hard line on the bath salt cases. At least some of the people we trust with our safety actually care.
I live in Boston, a decidedly non-frost heave town, and in Back Bay and the South End it was decided that brick cross walks and sidewalks were a cutesy idea.
The snowplows snag the crosswalks and the side walks are a minefield of raised and/or missing bricks. They even had the foresight to plant saplings in those sidewalks without thinking of what the roots would do in 10 years!
Want a crosswalk? Paint some lines!