By Lee J. Kahrs
BRANDON — Plans to build a convenience store and Dunkin Donuts where the Mobil station currently sits have been put on hold as the Segment 6 Route 7 project gets underway.
Property owner Midway Oil in Rutland received a permit from the Brandon Development Review Board in April 2016 to tear down the Mobil station and build a 3,380-square-foot Tenney Brook convenience store/gas station containing a Dunkin Donuts with a separate car wash.
But as the massive two-year Segment 6 project geared up, Midway Oil General Manager Dan Dukeshire said the company decided to wait.
“It just makes sense,” he said in a phone interview Monday, Aug.28. “Some of the last portion of the work to be done is right in front of our property. It wasn’t anybody’s fault, but we got the permit last year. I don’t think anyone was aware of how involved this [Segment 6] project would be.”
Dukeshire said the goal was to build the new store before the Segment 6 project began, but when the company started to look for bids, they realized that the timing would not work out.
Another concern is the traffic that the Dunkin Donuts project is expected to generate. The number of vehicles entering and
exiting the store during peak traffic hours is expected to increase three-fold compared to current traffic levels. In the DRB permit application planners estimated that the project will generate roughly 58 vehicles per hour.
To that end, in its approval the DRB issued the condition that the applicant “continue to work with the Brandon Public Works Director, VTrans and Segment 6 engineers to ensure proper traffic calming measures to meet the demands of nearly tripling the number of visits during peak hours. Peak numbers will not exceed 60 vehicles per hour… Should peak visits exceed this number, applicant will need to go before the DRB again.”
The application indicates that hours of operation will be from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and the businesses will employ up to nine people.
For now, Midway Oil and Casella Construction are working together in a different way. Casella, the company that won the bid for the Segment 6 reconstruction, asked Midway Oil if they could use or lease the Mobil property as a staging area for heavy equipment, gravel and other roadwork supplies.
“We’re in the process of working that out with Casella,” Dukeshire said. “They said it would save them a lot of time and money, and it didn’t make sense to do our store at the same time. The construction company has the right to determine the schedule. All the details haven’t been worked out, but as part of the discussion with Casella, we’ll set a time frame so people know what to expect.”
Segment 6 construction began last month and is expected to last 30 months.
The work will be split into six subsections between the firehouse and the Jiffy Mart convenience store. Route 7 will be widened in spots, new sidewalks will be built, utility lines will be improved, and Route 7 will be re-routed to the south and west of Central Park.
The section along Conant Square between Seminary Street and the Post Office is scheduled to be completed in November 2019.
“It’s unfortunate the timing worked out this way because we know a lot of people are looking for a fresh cup of coffee,” Dukeshire said. application planners estimated that the project will generate roughly 58 vehicles per hour.
To that end, in its approval the DRB issued the condition that the applicant “continue to work with the Brandon Public Works Director, VTrans and Segment 6 engineers to ensure proper traffic calming measures to meet the demands of nearly tripling the number of visits during peak hours. Peak numbers will not exceed 60 vehicles per hour… Should peak visits exceed this number, applicant will need to go before the DRB again.”
The application indicates that hours of operation will be from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and the businesses will employ up to nine people.
For now, Midway Oil and Casella Construction are working together in a different way. Casella, the company that won the bid for the Segment 6 reconstruction, asked Midway Oil if they could use or lease the Mobil property as a staging area for heavy equipment, gravel and other roadwork supplies.
“We’re in the process of working that out with Casella,” Dukeshire said. “They said it would save them a lot of time and money, and it didn’t make sense to do our store at the same time. The construction company has the right to determine the schedule. All the details haven’t been worked out, but as part of the discussion with Casella, we’ll set a time frame so people know what to expect.”
