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Salisbury School tunnel under Route 44 nears completion

Salisbury School tunnel under Route 44 nears completion

The tunnel under Route 44 at Salisbury School is nearing completion.

Patrick L. Sullivan

SALISBURY — Construction of a tunnel beneath Route 44 connecting Salisbury School’s north and south campuses is nearing completion.

Vafa Vahid, the private boys’ school’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer, said Monday, Sept. 28, that the tunnel will likely be ready for use by mid-November.

He did not have a date for the removal of the temporary lane barriers on Route 44.
Vahid said construction began in May but stopped in June while the school awaited state permits.

Dayton Construction Company of Watertown is the contractor.
Vahid declined to give a specific cost but confirmed that it is “a multi-million dollar project.”

The tunnel will allow students, faculty and staff to walk between the campuses without crossing busy Route 44.

The north campus includes faculty and staff housing and athletic facilities.

Currently, pedestrians use a crossing marked by signs and a cone, sometimes with a crossing guard present.

Vahid said the primary reason for building the tunnel “is the safety of the kids.”

Patrick L. Sullivan
Senior Reporter
Patrick Sullivan has been a reporter for The Lakeville Journal since 2004, covering everything from town meetings to local characters and the outdoors. He grew up in Northern Virginia but spent summers on Mount Riga in Salisbury, giving him a lifelong connection to the Northwest Corner. A graduate of Denison University, Patrick is also the author of Tangled Lines, the newspapers’ popular fly-fishing column—making The Lakeville Journal, as far as anyone knows, the only newspaper in Connecticut with a regular fly-fishing columnist. He once received a fan letter from England, which he considers sufficient evidence that his work has achieved international acclaim.
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