North Salem's Winter Detours Run Through Its Other Road Closures

"There is no good scenario," Supervisor Warren Lucas said of the Route 22 culvert replacement, as North Salem News reported in October. "The best thing we can do is to have them take the entire road and get the work done in as short a time as possible."

The culvert at Valeria Circle is only one of the town's projects. In an October 30 notice, the Town of North Salem listed three areas of work that will affect traffic through town: I-684, Route 22 at the south end of town, and Peach Lake Road. Each one has its own detour, and those detours overlap. This winter, the roads you would normally use to get around one closure are carrying overflow from another.

The backup routes are already busy

When NYSDOT closes Route 22, the Halston report lays out the through detour like this. Drivers above Valeria Circle go north on Route 22 to Purdys, west on Route 116 into Somers, then south on Routes 100 and 138 to Goldens Bridge to rejoin Route 22 southbound.

I-684 is the road that would normally take pressure off that loop. It has work of its own. In August, a NYSDOT advisory set I-684 at two lanes between Exit 6 at Route 35 in Bedford and Exit 7 at Route 116 in North Salem on weekday nights, 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., through the end of November, weather permitting. The town's October 30 notice said a lane was closed in each direction on I-684 just south of North Salem. Lucas told North Salem News the highway won't have three lanes open "for quite some time." He expects that to push traffic onto Routes 138, 116, 121, 35, 100 and 202.

"This is what makes this harder to deal with," he said of the culvert project.

Route 121 is on that overflow list, and it's the third project. The town scheduled Peach Lake Road to close between Bloomer Road and Vail Lane starting November 9, with the work expected to take up to three months. Routes 116 and 138 carry the Route 22 detour, and they're also on Lucas's overflow list for I-684. Route 121 is on that list too, and part of it is now closed.

Where each project stands

The three projects run on different clocks, and only one of them has a fixed start date.

If both the I-684 and Peach Lake Road schedules hold, the night lane work on I-684 ends before Peach Lake Road reopens. A three-month Peach Lake Road job that starts November 9 would run into early February. The Route 22 closure, whenever it starts, will overlap with at least part of that.

What the Route 22 closure means at your end of town

The town's October 16 notice explains how the closure works. Once it begins, there will be no through traffic on Route 22 between Route 116 at the Purdys traffic light and Route 138 in Goldens Bridge. How you get around depends on which side of the culvert you start from.

1. South of the culvert. The town says to go south to Route 138. To head north from there, Halston reported the route as Route 138 to Somers, then Route 100, then Route 116 back to Route 22.
2. North of the culvert. The town says to go north to Route 116.
3. Candlewood Park. All access to Valeria Circle and Morris Road from Route 22 will be closed. Residents of Valeria Circle, Morris Road, Stephen Road and Jessitar Road can come and go by Nash Road, and from there they can only head south.
4. Getting onto I-684 southbound. According to Halston, Exit 7 in Purdys gives access to I-684 south. Exit 6A in Goldens Bridge is set up for northbound traffic only. For anyone south of the culvert, the quickest way onto the highway southbound starts with a drive north.

Families with children in Katonah-Lewisboro schools have one less thing to sort out. The town says it has coordinated school bus access with the district, and the district will contact affected families directly.

Why Candlewood Park loses its Route 22 access

Closing the neighborhood's Route 22 entrances may seem extreme, but the reason is structural. DOT civil engineer David Parker advised the town to close Valeria Circle and Morris Road to through traffic. The bridge on Valeria Circle isn't wide enough for "proper two-way traffic," and if the roads stayed open, cars could back up into the development "for miles in both directions," according to North Salem News.

The neighborhood is also hosting some of the work. Lucas said the contractor plans to stage equipment near the Candlewood Park dam, and that the site will be cleaned up and "returned to its original or better state" when the project is done. The town is giving NYSDOT a temporary easement to work on the east side of Route 22, because there's "insufficient room" to install the new culvert without crossing the state's property line.

Why the start date keeps moving

Drivers who saw the variable message signs this fall have already seen one false start. In late September, signs flashed a start date of October 12. NYSDOT then said its contractor had turned them on by mistake, that no start date had been set, and that the signs had been deactivated. The town's October 16 notice gave October 26 as the planned date, with the caveat that the exact date would be set closer to the work. By October 30, the town said NYSDOT was still working on the permits it needs.

The road is narrowed in the meantime. One lane was already shut because of the failing culvert, Halston reported. That's the single lane with an alternating traffic light that drivers have been going through at the south end of town.

Lucas has also said how much warning to expect. "They have told us they will be giving us notice of hopefully a few days before the closure," he wrote in a social media post quoted by North Salem News. "They can't directly control the contractor and the day they start; that is dependent on people, machinery, and other items they need for the job." In September, North Salem News expected the closure within two weeks. Since then the start date has moved several times, and the duration has been revised to 8 to 10 weeks.

Peach Lake Road, the newest closure

The Route 121 closure was announced most recently and with the least detail. It covers the stretch between Bloomer Road and Vail Lane. The county's comprehensive plan for North Salem places the Peach Lake hamlet at the Route 121 and Bloomer Road intersection, and it lists Vails Grove among the co-ops on Peach Lake. The closed stretch starts at that intersection, and Route 121 is also one of the roads Lucas expects to pick up I-684 overflow.

The town's News Flash page is where it has posted updates on all three projects, and it says detour signs will go up for the Route 22 closure. Lucas has said the town will share updates as NYSDOT gives them a firm date. The October 2 article quotes him promising to "provide as much lead time as possible." For a drive that will be different in December than it was in October, those town posts and the state's 511NY system are the two to check.

Construction changes more than commute times. It can also affect when showings are easy to schedule and how buyers get to a house. If you're thinking about a move around Candlewood Park, Peach Lake or Purdys this winter, Marcie Nolletti can help you plan showings, inspections and closing dates around the closures. Let's Connect.