EDITOR’S NOTE: The Bricks & Mortar Report will provide updates every Monday on major construction projects in Chenango County.

County Route 32 roadway:
• After a walk through last week, county Department of Public Works officials declared the $8 million project 95 percent complete.
• The department received complaints about the size of newly installed culverts, DPW Director Randy Gibbon said. “Even though they are 20 percent larger. And, no, they are not designed to take a 100 year flood like we recently had,” he told members of the Public Works Committee last week.

State Route 12B bridge improvement project:
• The New York State Depatment of Transporation has not yet given right-of-way approvals in order to begin constructing a new, 12B bridge connecting 32 and state Route 12. “It won’t be started until next year at the earliest,” Gibbon said.


East Park Place Restaurant
• City of Norwich planners said a china buffet restaurant is “moving along” with plans to replace the former East Park Supper Club on East Park Place in Norwich.

‘06 Flood Disaster infrastructure repair:
• A portion of County Route 10A in the Town of Preston will close Tuesday for a one month in order to install a newly received 6-foot in diameter, 140- foot long pipe. Motorists will be directed to detour on county Route 19. A flood damaged culvert requires escavation into bedrock and concrete headwalls on each end of the pipe. “I hope it will only take three weeks, but you never know. This is a big project,” Gibbon said.
• County Route 38 will be closed, alternatively, between Hohreiter and Schlafer roads while crews install two new culverts. “We hope to have it opened up by school time,” Gibbon said.
• Town of Norwich Highway Superintendent Stan Foulds said highway crews are currently restoring Lower Ravine Road and Sharman Drive to be ready for the school year. Workers continue to fill holes, install culvert pipes and fill over driveways on “quite a few roads,” he said.
• Pavement and shoulders are completed on county Route 16.
• County highway crews and contracters are busy cleaning out flood-related debris that collected in streams under 50 bridges in the county. Six have been completed, including the bridges on Beckwith Road and Ives Road.

Housing Starts (modular, double wide and stick built):
•There were 12 housing starts in Chenango County during the month of July.
•The Chenango County Codes Enforcement Department tallied two each in the towns of Sherburne and Plymouth and one each in Norwich, Oxford, McDonough, Guilford, German, Columbus, Smithville and Preston.

Lowe’s Home Improvement center:
• Members of the Chenango County Planning Board reviewed traffic flow patterns at Lowe’s Home Improvement Center and Pioneer Norwich LLC’s plans to build two structures to front the plaza.
• Planner Dan Behuniak explained north and south egresses. Shoppers traveling south may enter and exit the plaza via a new juncture at state Route 12. Those heading north must enter and exit the plaza off of Upper Ravine Road.
• “That’s going to put a lot more traffic on the Ravine roads,” Norwich planned Richard Dansingberg said.
• The board reviewed landscaping, fencing and retiming the state Department of Transportation’s traffic light at the Route 12 intersection.
• Town of Norwich Supervisor David C. Law said one of the new structures would be a credit union “that is new to the area.” He said the second would be a retail space.

Oxford Main Street Bridge:
• Local and state transportation officials and engineers will meet Tuesday to review guidelines for replacing the 1950s era bridge in the heart of the village.
• The project is required by state mandate to gather local participation in the bridge’s design concept. Village and town citizens will be asked to provide input during three advisory group gatherings that will be scheduled in the near future. Gibbon said suggestions will be taken into consideration “but the cost must be reasonable.”