Maple Ave. work to start

Traffic around Maple Avenue will increase soon, as roadwork and sidewalk remodeling are slated to begin Aug. 1 and be completed by Thanksgiving. The mayor and the board of trustees approved the street’s reconstruction project on July 14.

“There may be some details that aren’t done by Thanksgiving, but largely [it] will be done by Thanksgiving,” said Kathleen Murray, the village’s deputy administrator for planning and strategic initiatives.

The street corners will be widened with “bump-outs” to make them safer for pedestrians, and crosswalks will be painted red instead of the current white stripes.

The project is expected to cost $2.6 million. Half of the funds will come from a federal grant that is focused on rebuilding roads so they are safer for bicycle riders as well as pedestrians. The other half of the money will come from the village.

During construction, one lane of the two-lane Maple Avenue will be closed, which officials acknowledge will create more traffic on neighboring roads. “So what I ask as we go forward into this project is for everybody to be a little more courteous, a little bit more patient than you might otherwise be, and remember that this is only a few months,” Murray said. “And around about Thanksgiving, when we’re done with the project, we should have a beautiful new road that will make everybody happy.”

The primary contractor is Roadwork Ahead, based in Westbury, while Cameron Engineering, of Woodbury, will provide construction management and street inspection services.

Maple Avenue has been under construction since last year, though work has slowed down in the past due to a lack of state funding and the discovery of pipes and electrical lines that did not appear in maps of the area. The route of the St. Patrick’s Parade was changed this year because of the work on the street, but Mayor Francis X. Murray promised that it would be ready for next year’s parade.