After nearly a year, the Fisher Road culvert work has begun. The road leading to the Central Vermont Medical Center from Berlin Street has been closed since September 2020. Photo by Carla Occaso.
Correction: We misidentified the culvert shown in the photo for this story. We regret the error. The culvert shown is the old culvert, which the crew from Dubois Construction was working to remove on August 29. The old culvert had failed during a rainstorm last year, and the road to Central Vermont Medical Center has been blocked from the Paine Turnpike side ever since (Paine Turnpike is the upper end of Berlin Street). The select board for the Town of Berlin issued the notice of award to Dubois Construction to do the work during its meeting August 2. With construction started, it indeed looks like the road may indeed be open by snowfall, as a Berlin town official estimated — barring any new mishaps.
Fisher Road is the access road to Central Vermont Medical Center when you are traveling up from Montpelier on Berlin Street. Heavy rain completely washed out the culvert almost a year ago, on September 29, 2020, completely blocking passage on the section of road between the turnoff to Fisher Road and the entrances to the Army National Guard facility and the psychiatric hospital as well as the Berlin Mall and the Central Vermont Medical Center.
But Berlin’s Town Administrator Vincent Conti sounded cautiously optimistic following the August second selectboard meeting. The board unanimously authorized Conti to sign the notice of award of $839,900 to Dubois Construction to complete the work. Berlin citizens had previously voted to allow the selectboard to borrow up to $1.4 million for the repair. And barring any difficulties, Conti told The Bridge the project is on track to be complete by around the second week in November.
