Repaving of Farmington Avenue Set to Begin

The long-awaited repaving of Farmington Ave. will begin in late July, West Hartford Town Manager Ron Van Winkle advised the Town Council on Tuesday night.

The multi-year Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) project, which included replacement of a pipe that was installed just a few years after the Civil War ended, will finally be completed in the next few weeks.

The remaining road reconstruction project will be performed by the West Hartford Department of Public Works, and will begin with milling of the section of Farmington Ave. from Trout Brook east to Ardmore. The milling process will be a "huge excavation," Van Winkle said, involving removal of 4 to 6 inches of concrete that will then be replaced with gravel.

Van Winkle said that one lane will be open in each direction throughout most of the construction period, but on-street parking will be temporarily eliminated. The project will continue until October.

The remainder of Farmington Ave., from Ardmore to Whiting Lane, will be reconstructed in 2014 according to Van Winkle.

Once complete, Farmington Ave. will have islands in the middle, and will not include bicycle lanes. Van Winkle said that although the Bicycle Advisory Committee requested that the road be bicycle friendly, a decision was made not to do that because of the need for on-street parking, a higher-than-average incidence of pedestrian accidents along Farmington Ave., and the presence of an east-west bicycle route just one block to the south on Boulevard.

Other major ongoing road reconstruction projects include the MDC work on Boulevard. That is nearly complete, said Van Winkle, with the final phase of 
lining the pipes that go from the street to the houses nearly complete. "We expect that MDC will be milling and paving that by end of July as well," said Van Winkle.

North Main St., from Albany Ave. to the Bloomfield line, will also be repaved this summer. That roadway is state road, and the state will be doing the work, Van Winkle said.

"There is lots of construction going on," said Van Winkle.