Village Manager Mary Beth Murphy's update on the Main St. and Warburton Ave. Paving Project July 29, 2022 Update

Above is a photo of a tree on Main St. with what is known as "girdling roots" where the roots begin to wrap around the tree itself rather than radiating out in a healthy fashion. Girdling restricts the movement of water and puts pressure on the trees. Constricted tree pits deny the trees’ root systems sufficient water and oxygen, and the trees eventually end up in effect strangling themselves and dying (see here for more information on this phenomena: https://www.arborrangers.com/girdling-roots-kill-trees/). 

 

Planting trees in small planting holes is a common cause of girdling, and the issue is exacerbated when planting holes are surrounded by inflexible concrete or paving. There’s nowhere for the lateral roots near the surface to go, so the natural flaring at the base of a trunk is compressed. Roots meant to grow laterally hit the inflexible edge of the planting hole and change their direction to circle around in the limited volume of open soil. Urban street trees are common victims of this, as their planting holes are notoriously undersized. The longer a tree must deal with girdling roots, the weaker and more unstable it becomes. If you walk through our downtown, you will see many examples of this destructive girdling process.

 

One of the side effects of girdling is that the trees lift up the sidewalk slab (there are also many examples of this in the downtown) creating tripping hazards for pedestrians, and the uneven surfaces are difficult to navigate, particularly for pedestrians using walkers, shopping carts, pushing strollers and other wheeled conveyance.  It is particularly problematic in municipalities like ours where the sidewalks are very narrow. 

 

If left unresolved, the conflicting root(s) may eventually choke and strangle the plant, interrupting the uptake of water and nutrients completely in the girdled zone, which, in turn, leads to:

 

As part of the sidewalk project the tree pits will be enlarged and modified to better accommodate a healthy growing environment for trees.  In addition, the choices of trees and method of planting will be tailored to a street tree environment. The tree pits will also allow for both water infiltration and walkability across them with pavers.

 

The demolition and reconstruction of the sidewalks will be done in small tranches of 70 to 100 feet to reduce disturbance in the downtown.  Having prepared the site the Contractor has set up a staging area at the Steinschneider parking lot, dug test pits, located electrical lines and is currently excavating and installed conduit and new pull boxes on Main Street.