Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship.
WINOOSKI — Where James Lang lives, a little over a quarter mile up Main Street, unruly traffic and debris from the city’s multimillion-dollar road upgrade hasn’t been too bad for the five-year resident.
But the road is still in poor condition — so bad, he said, that hitting an unseen pothole caused him to get into an accident this summer.
“My foot hit the gas, and I just went right into the back of a truck,” Lang said. “Little fender bender. His truck was fine; my truck was totaled.”
Potholes have become endemic on Main Street, where Lang said rainfall erodes parts of the road and, when water is pooling, potholes are nearly invisible while driving.
Still, he thinks the problems will pay off.
“Of course it’s worth it,” he said. “People before me use the infrastructure that I use; people that are going to be here after me are going to use the infrastructure that they install. It’s necessary. Has it been annoying? Sure.”
Residents on Winooski’s Main Street are living with the ramifications of the city’s revitalization project as construction nears its six-month milestone. The over $28 million project began in April and is slated to continue into 2026.
The project aims to revamp the roadway and make it more accessible for all types of transportation. The plans feature wider sidewalks, the addition of bike lanes, new traffic signal equipment and lighting and landscape enhancements.
Main Street’s infrastructure is also slated for updates. The city will add new stormwater infiltration practices, sewer and water utilities, as well as relocate existing aerial power and telecommunication lines.
The construction, which runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the week, has caused high levels of noise, dust, water shut-offs and poor driving conditions. The disruption has left some of those who live and work on Main Street weighing the pros and cons of the renovations.
“The big overriding problem is dust, constant dust. It’s on everything,” said one Main Street resident who has lived in Winooski for 15 years and described being beset by dust and clamor while working from home. “It gets everywhere. It’s inside our homes.”
He declined to give his name for fear of repercussions from the city and his landlord.
“I don’t refer to it as the construction zone — I refer to it as the disaster area,” he said. He pointed to his car as an example. That afternoon, its exterior was almost completely covered in a thin film of dust.
Paul Sarne, communications director for the City of Winooski, said the contractor, Kubricky Construction, uses a water truck to tamp down dust and sweeps disturbed project areas to prevent clouds forming. Calcium chloride is also applied to prevent dust clouds over longer periods of time, Sarne said.
“While the construction does provide challenges, the City of Winooski looks forward to the positive outcomes of investing in our long-term economic vitality and replacing our 100-year-old municipal infrastructure,” Sarne said in a Sept. 24 email.
Sarne said the city also monitors roadway conditions and potholes and that the contractor communicates to residents and businesses when they will experience temporary driveway and utility interruptions.
Elizabeth von Oehsen is new to Winooski. She moved into her home adjacent to Main Street just a day before she was interviewed. In her limited time in the city, she acknowledged the inconvenience of the situation but supported the measures overall.
“I’m a cyclist. I bike everywhere, so personally I’m really psyched about there being a bike lane there, and I think that this growing pain is totally worth it,” von Oehsen said.
Von Oehsen’s friend, Antonio Peluso, said signage around Main Street hasn’t been clear and has probably fueled traffic chaos, which was also described by other Main Street residents. Peluso even found himself on the offending end.
“The signage is really confusing,” he said. “I drove like all the way through it illegally because it didn’t say (it was a one-way road).”
It’s not only residents who’ve cited the project as a problem: Local businesses have taken a hit as well in the few months since construction started. Eateries Wicked Wings and McKee’s Pub & Grill closed shop in the last several weeks, with each business’ owners naming dwindling foot and automobile traffic as a factor.
Fastop, a convenience store and gas station owned by Champlain Farms, has suffered a 30 to 40% drop in sales since construction began, said Sara Bolio, the store’s assistant manager.
Fastop, which sits directly off of Main Street, has fared better than other businesses because of its reliance on foot traffic and regular customers who live close by, Bolio said.
Even though she admires the plans for the finished project, Bolio is unsure whether some Winooski businesses will survive until the project is completed.
“People don’t want to drive down here,” she said. “The roads are (full of) many more potholes and everything. People are trying to avoid the area as much as possible.”
Around Main Street on that recent afternoon, residents also expressed anxiety about another construction project set to start in the near future: the replacement of the Burlington-Winooski Bridge.
Work on the bridge, which was first built in 1928, is slated to begin in 2027. The current plans look to update the bridge’s infrastructure, as well as widen its shoulders and create shared pathways for cyclists and pedestrians.