WESTFIELD–Mayor Brian Sullivan announced yesterday that the city would be replacing balustrades at several city parks near the Great River Bridge.
The balustrades, which were initially installed during the Great River Bridge project in 2012, surround a number of parks overlooking the Westfield River. The parks where construction will occur are the Half Mile Falls, Women’s temperance and Kane-Wojtkiewicz parks.
Construction barriers of the balustrades at Half Mile Falls Park
Sullivan said that the target of the project is “to get them to be safer and to have a better product and to match the rail fencing already in place.”
Sullivan doesn’t expect the project to interfere with vehicle traffic, since the parks are in between or off to the side of the Elm Street roadway.
Sullivan estimated the cost of the project to be between $250,000 and $350,000, but it is not expected to cost taxpayers anything new.
The new balustrades being put in that are currently around the Westfield River
“We will be using a reallocation of the Bullens Field park bond money that was leftover from the project,” Sullivan said.
Additionally, Sullivan said that the city may be able to seek refunds on the balustrade project due to it originally coming from the state and federal governments. The project was originally commissioned by the state, including the original balustrades. Engineering firm Habeeb and Associates were the engineering firm brought in by the city, which found that the balustrades were considered unsafe.
The bidding for the project is yet to happen, Sullivan said, but will occur soon.
“Design work for the new guardrail system has commenced and it is currently expected that construction of the new system will begin in the spring,” Sullivan added in a press release.
During the project, the parks themselves are expected to remain open, but the areas where the construction will happen–along the banks of the Westfield River at each park–is expected to be closed to the public.
