Aberdeen seeking input on plans to build Middleton Road between Beards Hill and Route 22

The City of Aberdeen is looking to its residents for input on the proposed construction of Middleton Road to connect Route 22 and Beards Hill Road.

A meeting has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday in Aberdeen City Council chambers.

It’s a project Aberdeen Mayor Patrick McGrady started looking into when he took office. It goes back decades, he said.

About 30 percent of the road is designed, and if everything goes well at Monday’s meeting, the rest could be finished over the winter and the project can go to bid, with construction to start in the spring, McGrady said.

“It should be done by next fall,” McGrady said. “There’s no reason it won’t be done, if things go as we plan.”

The city has obtained the necessary rights of way from adjoining property owners – the Klein family and Salvo/Vickers. They will also be contributing financially to construction costs, McGrady said.

“Everybody wants the road,” he said. “It’s a public benefit to having the thruway, which has been planned forever, and there’s a private benefit to having the thruway. I think everybody wins.”

The initial design of the road called for it to bisect the approximate 1.5-acre Salvo parcel, rendering both pieces essentially useless, McGrady said.

In the new plan, the road was moved to the east slightly to give the Salvos one parcel that can still be developed, the mayor said.

The plan could change depending on the input received Monday from the community, he said.

Instead of a traffic light, a traffic circle will be installed at the end of Middleton Road at Beards Hill Road by the new apartment complex.

The plan can be found on Aberdeen’s website.