Recently, many folks who travel along Route 9, from downtown Schroon to the Exit 27 turn-off, have been experiencing something  that fits in more with our part of the Adirondacks: peace and quiet.

With much of that area fully repaved with new black top   -- from shoulder to shoulder  -- the ride for drivers and their passengers, as well as home owners who live on the busy thoroughfare, has gotten a lot less noisy.  One home-owner who took the drive this past weekend and contacted Schroon Laker, estimates the decibels have fallen 75 per cent.

Town Supervisor, Mike Marnell, thinks it’s more like “100 per cent”.

“Before the work, when I crossed Route 9 (near Hayes Road) I could hear the cars coming. Now, it is so quiet, that I have to look to make sure there are none nearby,” Mr. Marnell told Schroon Laker today. “Now it’s almost silence.”

Once completed, the new surface of Route 9 will run from Main Street Schroon, all the way to down town Pottersville.

Mr. Marnell expects the job will be finished by the DOT next week. It will be welcome news to daily drivers who have suffered long waits during the summer. Depending on the time of day, and the extent of the repair work, locals and visitors were kept waiting for short or very long periods by road crews, who squeezed traffic into one lane.

Mr. Marnell, a former said Highway Superintendent,  who knows a thing or two about these things, says the DOT approached the huge job first by filling in large cracks and potholes, before the base coat then the final layer of blacktop was applied.

“As of today they had completed as far down as Scaroon Manor, just near the Warren County Line”.

Mr. Marnell says he will get the final budget numbers after the job is done, but estimates it will be “several thousands of dollars.”  

How was your experience with delays? Unbearable or worth the wait? Tell us in comments.