Main Street construction in Claremont continues and will wrap up before Thanksgiving

By GLYNIS HART
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CLAREMONT — Main Street project manager Scott Ozana reports that workers are still on track to complete the job by Thanksgiving in spite of the rain and chilly weather. 

“The rain hasn’t slowed things up as much as you’d think,” he said. “The city will have no issue with snow cleanup and pedestrian accessibility until we come back in the spring.” 

Finishing weeks of driving on dirt on the upper part of Main Street, commuters can now cruise almost silently on the freshly-laid asphalt road. Yet to be completed are the asphalt sidewalks, cleanup and landscaping, and a final top layer to the road that will be put down next year. 

“The whole thing with asphalt is, it’s technically always a liquid,” said Ozana. “On a normal temperature day, you could pick it up and bend it.” 

However, when the temperature drops below 50 degrees F, the asphalt may not compress enough. Three rollers compact the asphalt after it’s put down. Last Friday, when temperatures dropped into the low 40s, Ozana said they hired a consulting firm to measure the compaction behind the rollers. The internal temperature of the asphalt was 50 degrees, but the surface temperature was 40 degrees. 

“There’s a danger the asphalt will cool too quickly. Taking the extra precaution of have a tester is really vital,” said Ozana. “They try to reach 91 percent compaction. We reached 93.” 

As for the rain, Ozana said he only had to shut the job down one day when puddling might have compromised the structure of the road. 

On Thursday, the curbers are scheduled to come back and start working on the upper part of Main Street near the square. Skateboarders who may have been enjoying the perfect smoothness of the new road will soon have bumps to deal with, as a contractor will be coming soon to raise the drain grills and manhole covers up to the level of the new road — about one and a half additional inches, that will be put down in spring. 

“Somewhere between now and next week, we hope to have the pavers back,” said Ozana. “Once the curb is done the sidewalks can go in.”