Fred and I took a short trip this morning to the power plant just outside of West Danville.  Some of you will remember it was completely washed out back in 2012.  We recently talked to the folks at Green Mountain Power that owns the plant, and were told they should be back on line sometime late this summer or early fall.  It has been a huge job to reconstruct the building and get the turbine inside cleaned and repaired.  There was unbelievable damage caused when the penstock that brings water from the dam in West Danville down to the power plant burst.  A good portion of the penstock leading out of the dam had been compromised a few years earlier when heavy rains caused mud slides along the bank of the brook, leaving some of the penstock dangerously suspended with little or no support.  That fixed, only a short time later, the lower section of the old penstock gave way causing a torrent of water to rush above ground, and through the power plant building damaging everything in its path.  The top picture is how it looked today, the bottom one  was taken on June 18, 2012.  I found the slide show I did after the washout, if you'd like to see more of the damage back in 2012.

We made a short slide show today of the rebuilt plant, so you can compare then and now.  There was nobody there this morning, so we don't have official information for you, but I was able to get a picture of the machinery inside the building from the window.  It looks as if there is still work to do inside, and the penstock will need to be connected (in one picture you see the open end of the big pipe at the foot of the hill). Once connected, they will be able to accept water from the dam in West Danville which will relieve some of the pressure on the rubber dam to keep the water level within prescribed limits.  

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Work Update

Danville Route 2 Project

Project:  Danville FEGC 028-3(32)

Saturday, 7/13/13 – Crews will be grinding lines on Route 2 in the new pavement in preparation for line striping.  They expect to start early and finish mid morning. 

WEEK OF 7/15/13

Project Update:  This project is nearing completion!  After this week, there will be items such as, installation of new traffic signals, the remaining traffic islands and miscellaneous clean-up work left to be performed.  There may be some repairs here or there but for the most part, after this week, work will start winding down on the project.   Work updates will continue for the next couple of weeks.

Since the weather did not cooperate last week, line striping was postponed until this week.  Crews plan to paint lines this week, weather permitting.

Installation of the granite posts started last week and will continue into this week.  The posts are being installed around the Village Green and on Route 2 near the Danville School.

More street lights will be installed as well as new landscaping within the Village Green.

While crews are line striping, travel will be reduced to alternating one-way traffic while most of the work above is being performed.   Motorists should expect and plan for traffic delays when traveling in and around the project.

Contact Francine Perkins, Public Relations Officer, FRP Enterprises, LLC with any questions or concerns with regard to this project at 802-479-6994 or for a more up to date schedule visit www.roadworkupdates.com.

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 The above is probably the best news lots of Danville people (and folks passing through or visiting Danville) have had in a long time!  We will soon be posting photos of the finished project, and perhaps even a celebration.  Perhaps by Autumn on the Green time everything will be available again on the Green?  Wouldn't that be wonderful!