Engineer Michael Metzger and Dunkirk Councilwoman Nancy Nichols look at plans for a closure of part of Main Street at a meeting of the Department of Public Works Committee, which Nichols chairs, last week. Metzger is project engineer for Wells’ Enterprises expansion in the area; the company wants the street section closed to help out the project construction. P-J photo by M.J. Stafford

The Dunkirk Common Council is poised to consider closing part of Main Street at its next meeting, with a detour route set for a nearby block.

Wells Enterprises wants the road closed for about a year to facilitate the next phase of its ice cream plant expansion project. Representatives of the company discussed plans for the closure at a meeting of the Common Council’s Department of Public Works Committee last week.

Main Street from Marsden to Newton streets — a stretch directly adjacent to Wells’ factory — would be closed until May 1, 2026.

“From an emergency access standpoint, it’s still going to be totally accessible,” said Michael Metzger, Wells’ project engineer. He said the street would be blocked on both ends by movable barriers.

Metzger noted that the ice cream plant will still operate, with deliveries and pickups, throughout the road closure.

The stretch that’s to be closed saw 2,183 vehicles of all types on it per day in 2021, according to statistics passed out by Wells’ representatives. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, the vehicle count was more than 2,500, for four straight years from 2016-19.

The vehicle classification breakdown on the stat sheet covered 2020, the COVID year. It reported 24 medium- and heavy-weight trucks per day on the section of street to be closed.

Traffic is to be detoured down Marsden and Newton Streets, using Washington Avenue to connect. Plans shown by Wells call for “detour ahead” signs on Main Street at East 9th Street (north end) and near Hazleton Dog Park (south end). “Road closed ahead signs” would get erected on Main Street just ahead of the railroad tracks (north end) and at the Williams Street intersection (south end).

Wells intends to expand the turning radius at the Marsden Street intersection to help large trucks navigate the turn during the detour.

Michael Przybycien, deputy Department of Public Works Director, wondered who would repair damage to the road while it was closed for the year. The Wells representatives promised to repair any damage done to Main Street during the construction work.

“What if this (detour) does not work out, is there a Plan B?” Przybycien asked. “We haven’t really done so in a specific way but we’ve looked at other options,” Metzger replied.

Przybycien said he doesn’t really have an issue with closing the road, other than blacktop restoration. His boss, DPW Director Randy Woodbury, worried that confused truckers might turn left onto Main Street Extension from Williams — but stated “that’s out of my jurisdiction.” The section of Williams Street nearest Route 60 is in the town of Dunkirk, not the city of Dunkirk.

Police Chief Chris Witkowski and Fire Chief Nick Barter also attended the DPW meeting and said they could deal with the detour, after receiving assurances from Wells that their emergency vehicles can go down Main Street if needed. Metzger said that was a prime reason movable barriers were chosen to block the street.

Woodbury said he would prepare a Common Council resolution to shut Main Street and enact the detour, in time for the council’s next meeting April 16.

The DPW chief has taken the attitude that Wells’ multimillion-dollar expansion project, which will add production lines and jobs, is worth the year-long inconvenience of closing a stretch of Main Street.

“If DPW sees issues, we’ll negotiate at that time. We don’t want to get in the way,” he said.