Christmas light show cancelled
MADISON — The famous Richardson Light Show has been cancelled this year due to Hoy Road construction.
Construction on the 18-month, $9 million Hoy Road improvement project has led to the canceling of the major holiday tradition.
The Richardson Light Show announced on their Facebook page last Wednesday that they would not be holding the annual event due to a rerouting of a portion of Hoy Road.
“It is our sincere wish that you and your family have a blessed and joyful Christmas Season, and remember, ‘Jesus is the Reason for the Season,’” their post reads.
Carol Richardson said that they estimate a good portion of their traffic usually comes to Sundial Road through Hoy Road and that they did not want to put an extra burden on the roadway or cause further confusion.
“I guess we get to take a little vacation this year,” Richardson said. “We are really going to miss seeing everyone and we thought this would be a good social distancing activity for the Christmas with covid but we just did not want to interfere in any way with the road project.”
The announcement says that they will not run the show this year but hope to be back for the 2021 Christmas season. The road project has a current target completion window of Spring 2022.
David Hodge, public works administrator for the city of Madison, said on Oct. 13 that construction was scheduled to begin Thursday, Oct. 15, on a project to reconstruct Hoy Road in the City of Madison. He said that Hemphill Construction received their order to proceed in September and had been prepping the site for road work.
Hoy Road will be open for westbound traffic only from Rice Road to Old Canton Road, with Tisdale Road used as a detour route.
Rusty Hampton, marketing manager with Neel-Schaffer, the engineering firm overseeing the project, said that traffic has already been rerouted.
“Traffic between Rice and Old Canton Road is westbound only,” Hampton said Monday. “We don’t have any updates at this time.”
Roadway improvements, including the construction of a multi-use path, will be made to Hoy Road from Old Canton Road to Honeysuckle Drive. Improvements will also include the addition of a multi-use path along Rice Road, from Madison Avenue to Wellington Way.