WESTFIELD – Mayor Daniel M. Knapik is requesting the City Council, under immediate consideration, to approve two appropriations totaling $19,600 to purchase property to provide access to the Columbia Greenway.
Knapik is also requesting the council to take action tomorrow night to take two small parcels of land for the construction of a connector between the rail trail and Coleman Avenue.
The Board of Public Works voted unanimously last May to conditionally award Part 2 of the South Phase of the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail construction project to ET&L Corporation of Stow, which submitted the low bid of $2,297,538 to construct the next three quarters of a mile of the trail, work that includes extensive bridge work.
Work on the final section of phase 1 of the Columbia Greenway project, extending the rail trail from the Southwick line to East Silver Street, was initiated in February when a $2 million state grant, from the Executive Office of Energy and Environment, was released to the city.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti said this morning that the contractor will begin to clear the former rail bed and that work to demolish the bridge over South Meadow Road will begin next Monday.
Cressotti said the appropriations and land takings being submitted to the City Council tomorrow night are to position the city for construction of a connector off the west side of the rail trail.
Originally the city planned to take a former rail spur for construction of a connector between South Broad Street and the rail trail. That land is owned by Sullivan Transportation. That plan was dropped when Commercial Distributing expressed a desire to purchase the spur to expand its building which is located along the former railroad property.
Cressotti said the city is planning to construct a connector on the east side of the rail trail down to East Silver Street, next to the bridge abutment, where the existing sidewalk will be expanded to weight feet in width, but that a connector to Coleman Avenue would provide a more direct route to the South Middle School campus which includes Amelia Park, the Boys and Girls Club and the Children’s Museum.
“We’re asking the City Council to take enough land to get us to Coleman Avenue,” Cressotti said. “We’re going to secure land at this time which sets us up for the future opportunity to construct that connector.
The East Silver Street Bridge will be removed, but not replace in the current scope of rail trail work. The South Meadow Bridge will be replaced and will allow the road to be widened to two lanes of traffic. Tin Bridge will be refurbished to connect to the existing trail which now ends just south of Little River.
