State to shut Route 107 in Stockbridge to re-open it faster

STOCKBRIDGE — The state will close Route 107 in Stockbridge to all traffic Sunday as it makes final repairs to the road.
Route 107 has been open to local traffic, but state officials said Tuesday that repairing the damage done by Tropical Storm Irene requires closing the road entirely. They expect it to stay closed for more than a week.
The area from the intersection with Route 100 to the Post Office in Gaysville remains closed to through traffic while the new closure will begin 1.4 miles east of the intersection with Route 100 and run 1.1 miles to the intersection with Ranney Road. State officials said there are no buildings along the stretch to be closed.
While the Vermont Agency of Transportation is not designating a detour because of the through-traffic closure, state officials said residential traffic, including people who need to get to Stockbridge Central School, will be able to use Blackmer Boulevard.
Stockbridge Selectman Mark Doughty said the town will welcome having its main artery back.
“It’s been tough getting east to west for us since the storm,” he said. “I don’t even take 107 anymore.”
Not only has the trip to Bethel become longer due to having to take a series of back roads, but Doughty said Route 107 is the only connection between the three parts of Stockbridge.
“Without 107, it’s really hard to do anything,” he said. “We had people living on the edge of town who just left.”
The new construction, which will include replacing two culverts is not expected to affect work on other sections of Route 107. A section west of Tozier’s Restaurant in Bethel remains closed to all traffic and is not expected to reopen until late December.
Route 107 is the last stretch of state highway to remain closed due to damage from Tropical Storm Irene.
Meanwhile, Doughty said work continues on Stockbridge’s local roads as well. He said with recently completed construction on Davis Hill, no one in town remains cut off from their homes, but that the town is struggling with a lack of availability of top-coat gravel.
Doughty also said several people in town remain homeless and that more than 20 homes were damaged, adding up to 10 percent of the grand list in numbers if not in value, as residents wait to hear from federal officials.
“There’s a lot of pain and a lot of people not knowing what’s going on,” he said.
- Gordon Dritschilo | Staff Writer

Comments

[neil]

VT 12A is still closed in Roxbury