Have you been feeling like there are orange cones and yellow diggers everywhere you turn lately? Summer is the time for road and construction work. Photographer Vikram Anantha stopped by the Battle Green, where the town is updating the pipes below the sidewalks; Waltham Street near Clarke, where workers are replacing a culvert that brings water from one side of the road to the other; and outside the new police station, where workers are adding sewer, gas and water lines for the new building. Anantha spoke with workers and traffic police at the sites to gather more information, which you can read in the photo captions. Visit the town’s website for updates.

The town is updating the pipes below the sidewalks of Bedford St, Harrington Rd, and Mass Ave around the Battle Green, and in the process are going to give the sidewalks a makeover — repaving them to make them more modern, adding new lights, and making them wider than before to increase foot traffic.
In addition, they are changing the two islands near there: the one merging Mass Ave and Bedford St is being repaved and now will be wheelchair accessible, and the one between Bedford St, Hancock St, and Harrington Rd is being turned into a rotary. Traffic can pass while the work is in progress, but gets backed up at busy times.
The Battle Green area work and the town center renovation that happened last summer are part of a bigger operation to beautify the town in advance of the 250th anniversary celebrations. Work is expected to be complete by fall 2023.
On Waltham St near Clarke Middle School, construction workers are replacing a culvert that brings water from one side of the road to the other (you can see the two puddles in the photo), so they have to dig up the road beneath.
Work began on July 31 and is expected to be completed by August 16 — right in time for school to start, assuming all goes as planned. (Photo shows the traffic light where cars turn in to go to Clarke). To avoid the construction, cars can either go on Brookside Ave–Stedman Rd–Allen St, or they can take Marrett Rd–Spring St–Hayden Ave.
The town is building a new police station, and in the process has to add new sewer and water lines (and are hence digging up the road).
Traffic can still pass while the work is in process, but drivers need to be aware of the cones. At night, the holes are boarded up and drivers can drive over them like normal.
The road work should be finished within a few weeks, and the new station is expected to be completed sometime next year. (Aerial view of Mass Ave from the police station to the Battle Green).

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