Sidewalks In Berlin Getting Overhauled

BERLIN – For the next week, the Town of Berlin will continue seeing a lot of sidewalk work.

Sidewalks are being replaced or installed on six different streets throughout town. However, most of the work is minor and should be nearly finished by early December.

Mike Gibbons, Berlin’s director of Public Works, said the multi-street project is in full swing.

“Work on Washington Street should be done by next Monday,” said Gibbons. “With what’s being done at Flower Street, there’s a need to move telephone poles around. The bulk of work there will be done next week, then whatever’s left after we move the poles.”

Other roads receiving new sidewalk include Cedar Street, Franklin Avenue and Pine Street. The main issue with those streets is deterioration of concrete. Gibbons said that the sidewalks haven’t gotten to the point where people should be concerned, but they’ve gotten close enough that Public Works needed to intercede.

“Those sidewalks are broken up and need to be replaced,” he said. “We don’t want anyone to get hurt. It’s not yet a safety issue and we don’t want it to become one.”

One other street on the list is Broad. Gibbons stated that West Broad Street doesn’t have the same level of cracking in its sidewalks as some of the others mentioned, but gaps of road exist that currently don’t have walks. Public Works has decided to connect those gaps.

“We’re going from existing sidewalk to existing sidewalk there,” said Gibbons.
Washington Street will be receiving both replacement and new sidewalk.

“There’s some cracking there,” admitted Gibbons, “and some areas where sidewalk is non-existent so we’ll be putting new stuff in.”

All work should be done by next week with the likely exception of Flower St. However, Gibbons cautioned that the schedule was fragile and since rain was expected this week could change at any time.

“It’s all weather dependent,” he said.