WESTFIELD–At least for the winter, it looks like traffic will finally calm down.
That’s because road construction season is nearing an end, with its unofficial commencement being the day before Thanksgiving. However, that doesn’t mean that all construction is over. Some projects will continue throughout the winter, as both the city and the state try to wrap them up as soon as possible, but most projects will either be finished or placed on hold by the end of the season.
One of the projects that will be done is the North Elm Street-Notre Dame Street road construction. This area has caused headaches for many travelers, which could have been further compounded if it ran into the Mass Pike toll booth demolition project.
Westfield city engineer Mark Cressotti displays Main Street bridge plans at Anthenaeum library earlier this year.
“We’re done on North Elm, pretty much done,” Mark Cressotti, city engineer, said. “We are doing some peripheral items–fencing has to be put up and some landscaping.”
Another project which will be done by the end of the season is a rather brief project.
“We are going to start paving, I believe by the end of this week, some portions of the Gas Light District,” Cressotti said. “Associated with that paving there will be disruptions getting through there. School Street, Church Street, Central, Summer, Spring–it should take about a week and be done paving for the season.”
In spite of the paving on that project being done though, Cressotti said that the project will have continued work done once construction season begins again in the spring. In fact, many of the projects in town will be in hibernation, including the Little River Roadand Southwick Road improvement projects.
Piping and other construction material on Little River Road, where construction will start briefly later this month.
“It seems like things are pretty much on track,” Cressotti said about the projects this season. “The only thing for us was that we thought perhaps we would be paving Southwick Road, but that will wait until the spring because there was other work the DPW saw that needed to be done there.”
As for the Little River Road improvement project, Cressotti said that since it is a state road, the project is ultimately run and funded by the state, so the timetable is also dictated by them. Still, he said that the project will be beginning the sanitary sewer extension and drain line on Nov. 7. After that, the project will also stop through the winter.
As for another state project, the toll demolition, Cressotti said that he isn’t privy to all the goings on of the project but did know some additional information about it.
“Ours is the first toll to come down, they are currently working on that,” he said. “The traffic has been lighter than the usual, some of the construction at the toll is making it a little bit lighter, but there’s also a lot of unknowns on the motoring traffic part related to the tolls.”
The exterior of the Transit Pavilion, which is set to undergo interior construction throughout the winter months and open in the spring of 2017.
Other projects that will be starting back up in the spring include the Columbia Greenway, which wrapped up for the year earlier this month and recently had new construction awarded to an unspecified construction group, as well as the Joseph Avenue portion of the Sanitary Sewer Master Plan.
Finally, the Transit Pavilion, which has been ongoing since the spring, will finally be done with its outside work and Cressotti said that construction will continue inside throughout the winter. The completion of that project is still on pace for its original projected timeline of spring 2017.
