The new Main Street Columbia Rail Trail bridge is in the nearby Stop & Shop parking lot awaiting construction slated for later this week. (HOPE E. TREMBLAY/THE WESTFIELD NEWS)
WESTFIELD – Half of the new Main Street bridge for the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail central section is currently in the parking lot of Stop & Shop.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti said MassDOT, which is doing the construction on the trail, is assembling each half and then they will join the two on the Main Street bridge platform.
Due to weather, the scheduled erection of the Columbia Greenway Main Street Bridge has been moved to 7 p.m. on Monday, April 5. The section of Main Street between Free Street and Mechanic Street will be temporarily closed to all traffic for the erection of the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail’s Main Street signature bridge. This section of roadway will remain fully closed to all traffic until 7 a.m. on Tuesday, April 6, 2021.
The Columbia Greenway Elm Street bridge restoration is already underway. Cressotti said they had some steel work to do on the bridge, which turned out to be more extensive and required new drawings. He said they will complete the steel work, then raise the bed, replace the bearings, strip it and repaint.
“It will probably take a good part of the spring and then the summer,” he said.
Land just south of the Cowles Bridge is cleared as construction on the bridge continues. (HOPE E. TREMBLAY/THE WESTFIELD NEWS)
Over on Court Street, construction has begun on the new multi-use trail in front of the Church of the Atonement. Cressotti said a $250,000 grant was received for the trail, which will be a continuation of the multi-use trail on Western Avenue.
Another major project is Cowles bridge, where the state is maintaining traffic on one bridge while building another half bridge next to it. The land on either side of the bridge is being cleared for construction. Cressotti said the Cowles Bridge project will be going on for several seasons.
