Madison Open for Memorial Day Weekend: Parade Scheduled, Businesses Open as Center Project Construction Completion Nears

UPDATE: May 26, 2016

Issued by: Ryan Duques, Economic Development Commission

Residents and visitors to Madison’s downtown this holiday weekend will find the Center Project, which kicked off last September has transformed much of downtown. Sidewalks, light poles, bike racks and tree grates have already been completely installed on the north side of town.

This spring crews have moved quickly to replace the south side’s surfaces, with 70% complete. Light poles were also been installed on the south side this week.

The first plants were installed this week also: hanging flower baskets, which are installed on the new light poles. New trees and the center median landscaping are scheduled to be installed within the next 30-days.

To encourage healthy growth and foliage, tree specimens and median planting have been specially selected for downtown in a comprehensive landscape plan designed by Milone and MacBroom, which was engaged early in the project planning several years ago.

Additionally, a state-of-the-art underground irrigation system will ensure all new plants have water. Landscape architect Ryan Chmielewski from the firm and town engineer Mike Ott traveled to Winterberry Gardens in Southington last week to view the trees selected to be planted in Madison soon. Ott and Chmielewski were pleased with most of the trees, but asked that two be replaced as they didn’t meet expectations.

Major construction for phase one of the project is on-track to be completed by the 4th of July.

Very few parking spaces will be restricted for construction equipment over the holiday weekend and stores are open on their regular schedules.

Additionally, there is ample parking behind the south side of town (Stop and Shop), where both time restricted and unrestricted spaces can be found and there is parking on the north side of main street and behind the movie theater.

Soon the installation of the bricks is scheduled to begin. Installation will begin near the south east corner of town, near Walker Loden and Two Ems and move quickly west. Brick installation is the final stage of the new sidewalks as over the last few weeks the old surface was removed, a trench with utilities and irrigation was dug, cement was poured, tree grates and light pole bases installed and a thin layer of pavement was put down.

Business owners and employees are reminded of Madison’s parking restrictions, which include: Main Street, the west side of Wall Street and the parking area immediately behind RJ Julia’s and People’s Bank on the south side of main street have a two or three hour parking limit Monday – Friday and as posted. Untimed parking is available in the parking area just to the east of the Stop and Shop lot and behind the Movie Theatre.

Additional Information
Madison’s Memorial Day Parade: http://www.madisonct.org/Calendar.aspx?EID=1481
EDC Webcam, which is broadcasting live from the top of the Scranton Memorial Library at: http://madisonedc.org/development/live-web-cam/
Project Information: www.MadisonEDC.org/downtown-center-project/