Finally, Shovels Going in the Ground for Manville Road Project
The long-awaited Manville Road project will get underway next week as Pleasantville’s Department of Public Works will begin work by removing trees and flagpoles around the war monuments.
Village officials said crews will clear the way to widen the road between the corner of Memorial Plaza and Manville Road and the monuments. That will accommodate a new right-turn lane to replace the slip lane, long considered unsafe as cars leave Memorial Plaza and turn onto Manville Road.
Traffic safety issues surrounding the slip lane were first addressed by the Village Board in 2007.
“As we emerge from the winter, we’re looking forward to completing the Manville Road project,” Mayor Peter Scherer said. “We’ll have a construction site for several months – but the end result will be new pavement and roadway striping from Tompkins to Grant, improved traffic signals, a much better pedestrian condition and many new trees around the war monuments and Memorial Plaza.”
Since Manville Road is a state thoroughfare, it falls under the state Department of Transportation’s (DOT) jurisdiction. Subsequently, an application was submitted to the DOT but the project dragged on for years, in part because the DOT required new designs and budgets to be revised on multiple occasions.
The project was also put on hold during the pandemic as the village waited for DOT approval for the necessary extensions.
The DOT awarded a $1.6 million federal grant for the project, which requires a mandatory 50 percent match from the village.
Other work on tap for the next phase is installation of a new traffic signal and crosswalks at the new right-turn lane. Reconfigured parking will remain on the railroad side of the median, while plantings and a lawn area near the monuments will be added where the slip lane is currently located.
Flagpoles will be re-installed near the memorial and many new trees will be planted.
The final project will include new curbing and a sidewalk around the monument, which will widen over the MTA bridge toward Wheeler Avenue. A center island will be installed between Vanderbilt Avenue and Grant Street.
Another feature will be the addition of a mast-arm traffic signal adjacent to the Manville Road parking lot, which will replace the double traffic signal at the intersection of Wheeler Avenue and Manville Road.
Abby is a local journalist who has reported on breaking news for more than 20 years. She currently covers community issues in The Examiner as a full-time reporter and has written for the paper since its inception in 2007. Read more from Abby’s editor-author bio here. Read Abbys’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/ab-lub2019/
