It has been evident for some time now that work on the Middlebury railway tunnel project has stopped or, more precisely, has hardly resumed since last winter. That’s surprising, given the importance to our citizens and businesses of getting this disrupting work done as quickly as possible and on schedule.
As a result, rumors are circulating:
•Some speculate that unforeseen problems with the construction plans have been encountered.
•Others seem convinced that there is an unexpected hold-up in funding this huge project, which apparently depends on timely federal reimbursement of the millions being expended by the Vermont Agency of Transportation. For the project was reportedly launched on the assumption that such reimbursements would be forthcoming as promptly under the Trump administration as they had been in the past.
•Still others think its a labor dispute holding things up.
Whatever the real cause, no one in authority has so far, to the best of my knowledge, explained what’s going on or how, and how soon, whatever the problem is will be resolved. Some on the inside here in Middlebury, in the Agency of Transportation and probably in our Congressional delegation undoubtedly know all about the answers but have been uncharacteristically silent.
They owe Middlebury’s citizens and taxpayers a full, frank and ongoing explanation.
George Jaeger
Middlebury