ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) – Road work got started Tuesday to fix pothole-covered Church Street, which many consider to be Elmira’s roughest road. Crews started milling Church Street from North Main to Walnut Street.

“All we’re doing is grinding up the old asphalt to create a new surface for now,” said Rick Reynolds, a foreman with the Chemung County Dept. of Public Works. “Then in a couple of weeks we’re going to come back with a paving company and lay another new surface of asphalt which will give us new life to this road.”

On Wednesday, Church Street will be milled from Walnut St. all the way to Guinnip Ave.

“We’re going to have closures through there,” said Reynolds. “We’re going to send crews and notify people this afternoon. They’re going to have door knockers on there. Have your cars out by six o’clock in the morning. No parking on the street. We’ll have no parking as well signs as well. We’ll start right at six o’clock tomorrow morning.”

Traffic also reopened Tuesday on North Main St. after crews finished milling the road from Water St. to Second St.

“I thought it would be extremely bad. But we had customers, people walked in, couldn’t park out front but they walked in. So we were glad to see that but it did slow up business,” said David Panosian, owner of Mr. Panosian’s Famous Shoes. “Hey, it’s gotta be done. I mean, the potholes are particularly bad right now, particularly on Church Street going west. So this is the only way you can take care of it. You just gotta bite the bullet and do it.”

The City of Elmira says work to pave the milled streets will begin on May 8th and run through May 16th, depending on the weather. Most streets are expected to be completed by the middle of the summer.

The full list from the Chemung County DPW is below:

Milled and Repaved

  • Church St. (N. Main to Guinnip Ave.)
  • N. Main St. (Water St. to 2nd St.)
  • Roe Ave. (Hoffman to Walnut)
  • Lake St. (Water to E. Clinton)
  • Erie St. (Miller to Lake Ave.)
  • Sullivan Viaduct (Judson to East Ave.)
  • Lake St. (Wash to Warren)

Overlays (resurfacing)

  • Willys St. (Erie to the dead end)
  • Garden Rd. (Hoffman to Edgewood)
  • Euclid Ave. (Clinton to Fassett)
  • Valentine St. (Miller to Schuyler)
  • Oak St. (Wash to Harper)
  • Coburn St. (S. Walnut to the dead end)
  • Judson St. (Oak to Madison)
  • Powell/Boardman St. (Partridge to Lafrance)
  • Kendall Pl. (Davis to College)
  • Linden Pl. Ext. (Sullivan to City Yards)
  • Pleasant (Mt. Zoar to Franklin)

Other Chemung County Projects

  • Milling and repaving
    • Sing Sing Rd. – CR17 (Retirement Estates to Chambers South)
    • Schweizer Rd. – CR43 (new pavement to the dead end)
    • Philo Rd. – CR70 (the entire street)
    • Grand Central Ave. – CR62 (McConnell to Roosevelt)
  • Asphalt Recycling and Topping
    • Chambers Rd. – CR35 (Tompkins Corner to Murphy Hill)
  • Chip Sealing
    • Bird Creek Rd. – CR27
    • Sagetown Rd. – CR78
    • Lowman-Greatsinger Rd. – CR2
    • Warner St. – CR46
    • Langford Creek Rd. – CR13
    • Park Station Rd. – CR76