Ken Stayer, an employee of the Payne Gang Company of Monson, a sub-contractor for Comcast, transfers a set of cable television cables from a utility pole that will be removed in the center of Southwick to a new pole several feet away. (Photo by chief photographer Frederick Gore)
SOUTHWICK – A new completion date for work on College Highway has been set for Halloween.
The original target date for completion was Aug. 8, 2012, then in June, a September date was targeted. Now the project is pushing close to November.
Department of Public Works (DPW) Director Jeffrey Neece said this week that Western Massachusetts Electric Company (WMECO) is done with its portion of the work.
“Comcast is next,” he said. “I’ve been having trouble getting through to them but they should be in this week and that will take about a week and a half.”
“We have been in contact with the town and are working diligently to complete the project as soon as possible,” said Kristen Roberts, Vice President of Public Relations and Community Investment for Comcast’s Western New England Region.
When Comcast is done, Verizon will begin its job, which is the last piece of the puzzle before paving.
“They will do what they need to do, then pull poles,” said Neece.
The work was pushed back because WMECO was dealing with numerous problems from storms. Because of this, utility pole work could not be done and the old poles cannot be removed until the new poles are ready to go.
The work is a project of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and includes the widening of College Highway and installation of sidewalks from Tannery Road to Town Hall.
According to MassDOT, the project begins at Tannery Road and proceeds southerly ending at 445 College Highway at Guiel’s Auto Body. The drainage system will include a drainage trunk line that will run along Tannery Road approximately 1,377 feet ending where Slab Brook meets Tannery Road. The total length of the project is approximately 1.5 miles. The work to be done under this contract includes full depth reconstruction, cold planing, resurfacing, box widening with the addition of an exclusive center turning lane, concrete sidewalks and concrete wheelchair ramps, traffic signal reconstruction at two intersections, the extension of a culvert, drainage improvements and ornamental street lighting.
MassDOT is performing the work with a cost of $4.8 million. According to the MassDOT web site, the project is 92 percent complete.
