With its first afternoon and morning rush hour tests completed, the detour route for New Hempstead Road gets a good review.
“The detour is working fine,” says Charles “Skip” Vezzetti.
“Actually it worked out terrific.”
The initial glitch that caused traffic to move slowly on the detour route through the Chase Bank parking lot was due to two operational traffic lights within a short stretch of North Main Street. Once the traffic light at the intersection of North Main Street and New Hempstead Road was covered on late Wednesday afternoon, the backup diminished.
The temporary signal installed on North Main Street by the Chase Bank building and the Getty station will control the flow of traffic.
Construction work is occurring in different sections of the two-mile-long stretch of New Hempstead Road that is being reconstructed. Vezzetti says construction crews will be marking a pedestrian walkway along the detour route. Utility crews are working on the gas, electric and water lines in the Demarest Kill Culvert and some of the bridge's guardrails have been removed.
All utility lines must be taken out before dismantling of the structure begins.
Other crews are working on the Little Tor Culvert, which had failed and is being replaced. That part of the project will last through most of the summer. Additional work is taking place along
“They’ll be working on retaining walls along New Hempstead, west of Little Tor,” says Vezzetti.
He says all signs in the immediate detour area are in place and additional ones will be posted, including those directing drivers to alternate routes.
The 28-month-long reconstruction of New Hempstead Road will cost $28.5 million.
