Valley Aerial Optics
Drone footage from Facebook.com/valleyaerialoptics.
Demolition started Wednesday on four buildings along the south side of Main Street/Route 34 in Derby to make room for the Route 34 widening project.
“It’s progress,” Derby Mayor Rich Dziekan said from his office in City Hall as excavators began dismantling the buildings just down the road.
The state of Connecticut and the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments have been planning to expand Derby’s Main Street for years.
The plans, which have been the subject of several public information sessions, include the reconstruction of Main Street (also known as state Route 34) from the Derby-Shelton Bridge to Route 8.
Photo by Eugene Driscoll
The view from Main Street in Derby.
The road will be widened to make room for two lanes in each direction, separated by a center median, along with dedicated turning lanes at various points. The goal is to improve traffic flow through the downtown.
“(Connecting downtown roads) Elizabeth, Minerva and Thirds Streets will be converted to one-way circulation,” according to the project’s description on the NVCOG website.
Take out a moment to check out the NVCOG video of the project, which was posted on YouTube in 2017. Please note a bicycle lane shown in the video has been removed from the plan based on public input favoring more parking spaces on the south side of Main Street.
The removal of the buildings at 128 – 141 Main St. is NOT the start of widening project. The state is expected to put the widening project out to bid this summer, according to Derby officials.
The buildings most recently housed a package store, a religious shop, and a tile store. There were apartments on the upper floors.
Photo by Eugene Driscoll
The front of three of the four buildings before demolition started.
Environmental Services Inc. of South Windsor is handling the demo work, which will continue Thursday from about 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The buildings are being dismantled piece-by-piece starting at the roof.
Derby police have been closing the eastbound lane to protect passing motorists.
Two-way traffic is still getting through via the one open lane — but motorists are advised to seek alternate routes through downtown Derby while the work is underway.
It was cold — about 16 degrees — when an excavator with an elongated arm started tearing away at the first building Tuesday morning.
Bruce Devanney, the vice-president of Environmental Services, Inc. in South Windsor, said the job was routine from his company’s perspective.
The first building was five stories high when viewed from the rear parking lot.
“That (machine arm) goes up six stories,” Devanney said. “We’ll start by peeling off the brick off the back of the buildings and then removing the interior building into the basement.”
Devanney said it will take two-to-three days to get the buildings down to one story.
The rubble piles will be separated and loaded into 100-yard demolition trailers and hauled offsite.
Here’s a short video from Wednesday morning:
The stretch of Route 34 set to be rebuilt and expanded sits atop the Derby Redevelopment Zone. The city has been trying to lure investment into the redevelopment zone for years to no avail.
But in an interview Wednesday, Mayor Dziekan and Carmen DiCenso, the city’s economic development liaison, said things are looking up.
DiCenso said all the land in the redevelopment zone is now owned by state or the city — and the city is currently reviewing resumes from developers looking to invest. Ten years ago it was difficult to get all the landowners, potential investors and the various government agencies all on the same page.
Also, a development group is expected to submit a site plan later this month for about 200 200 market-rate housing units on Main Street at the former Lifetouch property and along Factory Street.
Dziekan and DiCenso said they city is also doing necessary work to repair the levees along the Housatonic and Naugatuck rivers, something that has to be done before anything new development goes into the redevelopment zone.
