NORWICH – As part of its efforts to invest $20.9 million to modernize its natural gas infrastructure, Norwich Public Utilities (NPU) and contractor crews will be milling and paving Asylum Street between Wednesday, October 22 and Friday, October 31, 2025.
Motorists should expect detours and delays during this timeframe. NPU will make every effort to allow northbound traffic through at all times (West Main Street toward Grant Court) but southbound traffic will be detoured utilizing Starr Street and New London Turnpike around the project.
School buses and emergency vehicles will be allowed through the work zone in both directions, but there may be unavoidable short-term delays to routine traffic during this time.
Traffic to local businesses and City facilities, such as Asylum Street Pizza, the Norwich Dog Park, the Norwich Public Works Fleet Garage, and Mini Melts will be allowed through, but motorists must inform the flaggers that they are visiting one of these establishments.
Residents who live on Asylum Street or side streets with no outlet such as the Western Avenue area, Monroe Street, Grant Court, West Pearl Street, and Willey Place will be permitted through the southbound lane detour but must also inform the flaggers that they live on one of the streets.
In addition, residents living on other side streets with alternative access points, such as Newton Street, Alice Street (via Willey Street), Coit Street, Pearl Street, and Maple Street are asked to utilize alternate routes to their homes during this time.
For several days, when Asylum Street is being milled, several dozen utility structures such as manholes, catch basins, and water and gas valve boxes will be elevated. Motorists should use extreme caution and travel very slowly on Asylum Street while these elevated structures are exposed. The current timing of the project will leave the structures elevated over the weekend of October 25th and 26th.
While NPU has carefully developed this schedule and a process to manage local traffic, the weather and/or other unforeseen circumstances could cause scheduling delays. NPU will keep the public notified of the schedule and any important changes as they occur.
This work is part of NPU’s comprehensive $20.9 million project to modernize its natural gas infrastructure, funded by the Pipleline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), part of the U.S. Department of Transportation. These funds will pay 100% of the cost of paving Asylum Street, avoiding several hundreds of thousands of dollars in paving costs that would have otherwise been funded by City of Norwich and its taxpayers.
NPU thanks the public for their continued patience as this important infrastructure project moves forward.