Canal Trail Work Resumes On Orange

Two years after digging up curbs at Orange and Grove streets — and then stopping part-way — construction workers returned to the spot Monday.

The crew from city-hired C J. Fucci Construction is on to the latest step toward completing the final Downtown stretch of the 80-mile Northampton-to-New Haven Farmington Canal rail trail.

When completed, this section of the bicycle and pedestrian trail will go through the remaining downtown below-grade sections past Whitney Avenue near Audubon Street and down to Grove Street; rise at-street level on Grove Street; continue to Olive, Water, and to Brewery streets, and over to Long Wharf Drive.

This final phase has been in the works for over a decade. Construction finally began in 2021 with a planned December 2022 deadline. Then a fall 2023 deadline. Now the hoped-for completion date is by fall 2024.

Fucci’s crew Monday was fixing the sidewalk and putting in a curb in front of Sitar restaurant at the northwest corner of Grove and Orange. Work remains to be done on pedestrian signals there and at Olive and Water, according to City Plan Director Laura Brown. ​“There’s very little left to do,” she said.

One snag: Last summer work had to stop on the Whitney-to-Grove stretch during arts summer camps on adjacent Audubon Street land due to a construction easement agreement. Brown said the city hopes to obtain a release of responsibility to avoid another pause this summer — since work is finished on the stretch abutting the camps.

The Orange-Grove intersection in particular has remained a stymied construction zone for two years, blocking access to a sidewalk and often leading to pedestrians walking amid car traffic on Grove.

Across the street at Orange and Grove, at the southwest corner of the intersection, a crew ripped up the sidewalk in August 2022, then stopped. It remained that way Monday (pictured below). The Fucci crew is expected to move across the block Tuesday to finish that sidewalk and corner as well, Brown said.