SE Connector Phase To Wrap By Mid-Dec.
Second Of Four Segments Originally Expected To Finish In Spring
Posted: November 24, 2012
Traffic moves along South Main Street at the intersection with the new Stone Spring Road-Erickson Avenue connector road Monday. A ceremony marking the finish of this phase of work is set for mid-December. (Photos by Michael Reilly)
The second phase of Harrisonburg’s Stone Spring Road-Erickson Avenue connector project is nearly finished. The view from a new bridge looking west toward the intersection with South Main Street on Friday.
In the next week, workers will mark the road and begin to install handrails along the new bridge over Interstate 81.
The roadway should open once the handrails are finished, said Drew Williams, assistant director of the Harrisonburg Public Works Department.
“We are getting close,” he said Wednesday, “just not quite there yet.”
Work on the second phase, between Stone Spring Road and South Main Street, had been expected to finish up next spring. Favorable weather pushed that date up several months.
A traffic light at the new intersection on South Main Street will flash before the road opens. Williams said the city usually flashes new lights five days in advance.
The first phase of the four-stage project was finished in August 2010. It widened Erickson Avenue at its intersection with South High Street.
Construction on the third leg, which will connect the first two phases, is ahead of schedule and will be finished sometime in 2013.
The first three phases of the project cost about $31.5 million; Harrisonburg’s commitment is close to $11 million.
The fourth and final phase, which has yet to be designed, will improve Erickson Avenue to the west city limits near Garbers Church Road.
The city project is part of a broader southeast connector, which also involves Rockingham County and developers, including Rockingham Memorial Hospital on Port Republic Road.
Contact Preston Knight at 574-6272 or pknight@dnronline.com