The Main Steet/downtown area of the city of Cortland. Construction crews, which are deep into the city’s DRI project, removed trees from the area last week. (Photo provided by Kevin L. Smith of The Cortland Voice).
Trees were removed, about 40 of them, from the Main Street downtown area of the city of Cortland last week.
While some community members have expressed concern of the trees being removed and about a now mostly bare downtown Cortland, Eric Mulvihill said it’s for the benefit of the city’s ongoing Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) project and the continuous construction alongside it.
“Some trees were going to be left (alone), but the decision was made through the planning process to take them down because there was a good chance they wouldn’t survive the construction disruption,” said Mulvihill, the economic development/community relations specialist at the Cortland County Business Development Corporation (BDC).
Construction for the DRI project this year involves the complete replacement of water and sewer laterals that are connected to the buildings on Main Street, as well as the 12-inch water main that serves the downtown area. Also part of the utility infrastructure is the replacement of the storm-sewer systems, Mulvihill said.
As part of the engineering design of the project, Mulvihill said, the trees were examined due to them being in the right-of-ways where construction work would take place.
“They spread out pretty well underneath the street,” he added, noting it “wasn’t plausible” to navigate the tree-route systems. “It’s one of those components of a major re-construction project. You can’t work around them.”
Despite the removal of trees from the downtown area, Mulvihill said new trees will be planted towards the end of the project.
This year is all about utility infrastructure. Next year, he added, there will be new sidewalks, curb lines, paving, street scaping, street lighting – and new trees.
Mulvihill is unsure if 40-or-so new trees will be planted, noting the maintenance and right size of trees need to be researched first.
Once a final plan is in place for the new trees, he added, the public will be notified.
For more information on construction in the downtown area, go to the Crown City Rising website. A full layout of Cortland’s DRI projects can be seen here.
