NEWBURYPORT — Motorists are going to have to put up with a bumpy ride on State Street for at least another year as the city has pushed repaving the downtown thoroughfare until next spring, at least.
During the winter of 2023, National Grid spent close to four months replacing a 100-year-old, 12-inch gas line under State Street. The construction work closed one of the two State Street traffic lanes, forcing downtown motorists to navigate their way through changing detours, while also avoiding pedestrians.
While the project was finished by the time the city installed restaurant parklets last April, the complete repaving of State Street was left to be done over the winter and finished by this spring.
But the schedule was changed when National Grid asked the city for permission late last year to extend a State Street gas line all the way up to High Street.
Department of Public Services Director Wayne Amaral said he agreed to the extension but strongly suggested National Grid hold off until this September.
“We had thought about doing it during the early summer but that really is our crazy time in the downtown,” he said. “We asked National Grid if maybe late September would have been better, so we could get past the summer and the restaurant parklets and all of that. I think they’re open to that.”
Mayor Sean Reardon said he also hopes to see the gas line work take place after Labor Day.
“They can’t just come in in November and repave,” he said. “So we’re going to leave it and get to it next year.”
Greater Newburyport Chamber of Commerce President Nate Allard said he hasn’t heard complaints from local businesses about the temporary and uneven State Street paving. But when construction is going on, that’s another story.
“The rockiness is not really a major concern to consumers,” he said. “But the challenge is anytime we have necessary construction work, it can always put a hindrance on customers or businesses.”
Another factor in the delay is that any large trench work related to the gas main extension should settle over the winter season before being paved over.
“You want to compact your trench, in a perfect world,” he said. “If you dig out a 5-foot trench, you compact about 1 foot at a time. But, even with the best compaction, there would be a settling of the ground where everything just settles and you’d get a sinkhole, because truck traffic is driving over it, or you have rain and frost. You want a season for that to set and settle.”
Paving during the winter is a fool’s errand, according to Amaral, who said he could see the State Street repaving begin as early as next spring.
“I’m going to want to do this either before or after the parklets are put in,” he said. “So that would look like early spring or late fall.”
The good news, Amaral said, is that paving could be done in less than a week.
“It would take a day or two to mill out what you have and a day or two to pave,” he said. “If National Grid starts the gas line project in September or October, we then have all winter for the ground to settle, freeze and expand. Then, by the spring, we can go for what we want to do.”
Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Newburyport for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.