Sarah Harrington
(4/5) Work on the sidewalk program in Thurmont began on March 23, with construction beginning on North Church Street at the Burger King. The sidewalk contractors have begun the first phase of the program, which involves tearing out the existing sidewalk. At the March 24 town meeting, Jim Humerick presented the program schedule to the mayor and commissioners.
The schedule for the project has many moving parts. At the meeting, Hummerick explained that the construction would be moving around a lot and he wanted to let the mayor and commissioners know where and why it would be doing that. According to Hummerick, there are two areas where the town has had to postpone construction. The first location is Sandy Springs Lane. The town
is currently awaiting approval to begin the third phase of the sewer rehab project. Once they are given the green light, the town will begin installing a new sewage line in that area.
The second location is the south side of East Main Street. This delay is due to repairs on the traffic signal that was removed by a truck a few months back. The town is waiting on the new traffic signal to be engineered and then replaced. Hummerick says this will take about six weeks to finish. Due to these repairs on both locations, the town knows that it would be unwise
to have the sidewalk construction done to those areas at the same time as the other repairs. Luckily for the town, the sidewalk contractor is willing to work around those two areas and jump back to them at a later date.
In the meantime, the contractors will be working on other areas, including West Main Street up to Route 15, back down through the north side of East Main Street, and up to Town Square and Center Street. Hummerick informed the mayor and commissioners that the areas that will be most impacted by the construction will be between CVS and Sandy Spring Lane.
While the sidewalk contractors are waiting to be able to work on Sandy Spring Lane and the south side of East Main Street, they will be able to finish up the few areas they were unable to finish last year. With these areas that need finishing, the postponed areas, and the anticipated traffic and parking issues, the project will take longer than expected. The contractors
are expecting there to be some difficulties once they reach the Square and the surrounding areas due to traffic. The contractors will be doing their best to get the construction done as quickly as possible and without causing too much of an inconvenience for residents. Hummerick says the contractors are hoping to be finished with the project by the end of the summer.
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