Construction crews worked furiously in recent weeks to finish assembling the pieces and move them into position on Pine Hill in time for Sunday’s official 6 p.m. lighting ceremony of the new cross at Holy Land in Waterbury.
The city is closing off part of South Elm Street, where it runs over I-84, so people can gather to watch the lighting of the 5,000 LED bulbs that will shine from inside the cross. The event will follow a 4:30 p.m. celebratory Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, a Roman Catholic parish not far from the base of the hill.
The cross cost the nonprofit group in charge of the project next to nothing because all the contractors and workers supplied the materials and the labor free. Mayor Neil M. O’Leary said the LED bulbs were the only expense, and only because the nonprofit organization that owns the property, Holy Land Waterbury U.S.A., couldn’t find someone in Waterbury who made them. The steel alone, he estimated, is worth more than $100,000.