After next week, Williamsburg residents will see a newly paved — and black — Duke of Gloucester Street.
But not to worry, the color is only temporary.
Starting Monday, Duke of Gloucester Street will be paved from the Capitol Building to the intersection at Boundary Street, said Dan Clayton, director of public works for the city.
The road will first be milled, which means scraping off a couple inches, and then paved with black asphalt. Clayton said the difference in color will be quite different when compared to the road’s current gray shade.
However, in the fall the road will be covered with a different material that will tone down the color.
Clayton said the paving, which will cost $115,000, is necessary because the road is in such poor shape. After fixing potholes and other aspects of the road, Clayton said the final step to having a structural stability is to pave it. This will be the first time the road has been paved in more than two decades, he added.
While there isn’t any vehicle traffic on the road, Clayton said a lot of the wear and tear comes from the carriages, weather and thousands of visitors that walk along it each year.
“We want all our roads to be nice,” Clayton said. “But this one has so much pedestrian traffic, it’s definitely needed.”
Paving Duke of Gloucester Street had been on the city’s agenda for a while, Clayton said, but the item was moved up due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now that there are very few people on the road, paving can be done without severely limiting people’s access because most places along the street are closed.
For the few people who still come to the area to walk and exercise, the sidewalks will remain open.
Work on the road will be done by Lee-Hy Paving Corporation and is expected to finish by Thursday or Friday of next week, weather permitting.
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