The town has announced that Elsmere Avenue will be closed for at least three days between Maple Avenue and Kenwood Avenue starting on July 8.
Supervisor Jack Cunningham made the announcement during the town’s Wednesday, June 25, town board meeting.
Commissioner of Public Works Josh Cansler told town board members that they discovered a sewer main running underneath Elsmere Avenue was broken in at least two places and would have to be dug up, resulting in having to close both lanes of traffic until the sewer line is fixed.
The two breaks in the pipe are about 30 or 40 yards apart, according to Cansler, and will have to be replaced. Traffic will be diverted in opposite directions in order to detour both lanes of traffic on the heavily commuted road, which will most likely led to delays during peak driving hours.
`Obviously Elsmere’s a main thoroughfare here in Bethlehem and Delmar, so that’s going to affect a lot of people,` Cansler said. `We’ve been working with DOT and the police department to come up with the best route to detour traffic for a couple of days.`
Cansler said the current plan of action was to divert southbound traffic down Elsmere Ave. to Herber Ave. and then left on Glendale Ave. before turning onto Kenwood Ave. and back onto Elsmere Avenue.
Northbound vehicles will be directed to take a right from Elsmere Ave. onto Kenwood Ave. and then left onto Ridge Road and left again onto West Popular Drive before merging back onto Elsmere Ave..
Cansler told the board that the work will begin at 6 a.m. on July 8 and that only one home will have its access blocked by the construction. He added that they held off on the project until after school was out.
`We’re going to try to fix one break one day [July 8], hopefully backfill it in and be able to reopen the road that night. There’s no guarantee of the that but that is our plan,` Cansler said. `Then open it up the next day, fix the second break and backfill it again on the night of July 9.`
However, Cansler warned, `Obviously if we get down there and find that it is a bigger problem than we thought then we may not be able to do that.`
Cansler told residents and board members that marked flagmen would be directing traffic on the corners of Elsmere Ave.; Kenwood Ave.; Poplar Drive; Herber Ave.; and Glendale Ave. He also said that notices would be put in the local newspapers and signs would be placed along the roadways.
Cansler said large trucks will not be diverted into the residential neighborhoods but will instead be sent down Elm Avenue over to the Delmar Bypass. Traffic will be able to flow in both directions throughout the construction, he said.
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