Construction Timeline Shifts Downtown Work Toward Main Street This Fall

The change follows delays that pushed the start of construction later than planned this season.

Keene’s downtown reconstruction is now set to move beyond Central Square and into Main Street this fall, with city officials saying the revised sequence should reduce disruption for residents, businesses and drivers.

At Wednesday morning’s update meeting at the transportation center on Gilbo Avenue, Public Works Director Don Lussier said Casella Construction will begin underground utility replacement south of Central Square near Water Street on Oct. 26, after the Keene Pumpkin Festival. Work in that area is expected to continue through January, while crews also finish underground utility work inside the square by December.

The change follows delays that pushed the start of construction later than planned this season. Casella, the Vermont-based contractor, had already said last month that Central Square work would continue through the winter.

Under the updated approach, the three-year downtown project is no longer moving forward as three neatly separated sections. Instead, Lussier said crews may be active in multiple places at once, with work broken into smaller stretches rather than concentrated in one large zone. He said that approach should ease the burden on downtown users.

Progress inside Central Square is moving ahead as well. Casella Superintendent Brian Rossier said new water lines there should be tied in and switched over to the existing system within the next couple weeks. After that, crews are scheduled to handle sewer and drainage work on the east side of the square and part of Washington Street.

Lussier said the heaviest traffic problems in Central Square should taper off by the end of the year, though some delays will continue during surface work such as sidewalk paving. He added that winter conditions will determine how much of the sewer and water replacement between Water and Emerald streets can be completed before spring.

Main Street will soon see utility replacement too. Lussier said work will begin near Davis Street at the end of the month and advance north as Central Square water connections are completed. He said most of the existing sewer and water infrastructure runs beneath the west side of Main Street before crossing over to the east side, and crews will not cross Main Street until after Thanksgiving.

Jeff Chase, Casella’s project manager, said the plan is to keep Main Street traffic impacts lighter than those in Central Square. Crews are expected to work in the southbound right-hand lane while leaving the left lane open, with no disruption to northbound traffic.

Looking ahead, Lussier said crews will return in the spring to continue underground work north on Main Street. At the same time, aboveground improvements in Central Square are scheduled from March through September and will include signal replacement, curb and paving work, sidewalk construction and landscaping, ending with the square’s common.

Surface work is then slated to shift to Water Street in August and continue north to Emerald Street, where completion is expected in October 2027. Underground work will keep going between Emerald Street and the bottom of the square at the same time.

If the draft schedule holds, all underground work and all of Central Square should be finished by November 2027. The remaining aboveground work between Emerald Street and the square would then continue into 2028, with final completion expected in November of that year. That means the portion once labeled phase three would wrap up before phase two.

Lussier also said some trees in the Main Street median will come out as part of the project. Trees marked green are staying, pink-marked trees will be moved, and orange-marked trees will be removed.

Liberty Utilities is also planning gas line replacement farther down Main Street, beneath the medians. A company representative was not available Wednesday afternoon.

The $28 million project is replacing underground utilities that date to the 1800s and adding new surface features, including bike lanes, upgraded traffic signals and wider sidewalks.