A resident who called himself only Paulie wrote to Patch and asked, “What the heck is going on?”
Paulie criticized the halted road work along Route 53/Grassy Plain. “Rough surfaces, protruding manholes and valve covers sticking up make driving like slalom skiing. The traffic light at Reservoir has been out of service and blinking for 5 days. There's not a work crew in sight,” he wrote in dismay.
According to Andrew Morosky, Bethel Town Engineer, Route 53 is a state road and therefore subject to holdups that would not have effected town roads. “It’s a State Highway project,” Morosky said, adding that the road had been ready for paving ten days ago.
“The schedule has shifted twice because of the weather,” he said. Morosky noted that the State has had to respond to weather related problems in other areas of the state that has kept them from completing the road work in Bethel.
As for the blinking traffic light at Reservoir Road, Morosky said, “That won’t be fixed until the road is paved. They have to install the loop detector.”
The loop detector is the sensor that tells the traffic light when a car is waiting. According to Morosky, the loop detector cannot be installed until the paving has been completed. A groove will be cut in the road and the sensor wire will be laid within the road.
While the State Department of Transportation could not be reached to confirm, Morosky said that the roadwork is scheduled to resume on Wednesday, August 1.
