Frigid temperatures and frozen ground have slowed progress on a Memorial Sidewalk project — its first section leading from the top of Church Hill Road downhill to an existing stretch of walkway.

“Frost has really set into the ground and it’s too hard to dig,” said contractor Rob Manna of LRM Landscape Contractors.

Work stopped at the very top of Church Hill Road several weeks ago, when cold weather set in. Since then, many drivers have passed by the site where ground moving machinery is parked on an already excavated area, the earth eaten away where a retaining wall will go, and overturned wheelbarrows sit waiting. Bright orange cones mark off the work zone on Church Hill Road just below the flagpole.

Lawn space bordering and once sloping into Church Hill is now dug away to street level where a sidewalk — similar to the concrete walks on Main Street — will soon carry foot traffic. Currently, pedestrians must walk in the street along the curb to where Church Hill and Main meet. The excavation extends from the Main Street intersection down to the driveway for 3 Church Hill Road. On the other side of the drive is an existing sidewalk that crosses in front of The Newtown Bee Building.

Waiting for temperatures to hit above the freezing mark to resume work, Mr Manna said he hopes to get started soon.

While room for a sidewalk and curbing is already partially dug, the next step is to put in a retaining wall along top of Church Hill, Mr Manna said.

After completing the stone retaining wall, his crew will begin work on the sidewalk, then install six roughly 12-foot lighting poles. Landscaping and a curb will complete the work. Mr Manna anticipates a spring finish.

In July, the Board of Finance had approved the roughly $193,005 project. The Memorial Sidewalk is meant to eventually connect Main Street to the new Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Major donors to the project are resident Dr Thomas Draper, who is also Newtown’s medical advisor and associate director of health, and his son Joseph. Shortly after 12/14, Dr Draper had approached First Selectman Pat Llodra with the idea for showing that the community is connected. The top several hundred feet of Church Hill Road is the first gap in the existing sidewalk system stretching down toward Sandy Hook Center.