(l-r) Westfield Mayor Sullivan, Nabil Hannoush, State Sen. Humason, State Rep. Velis, Julie Hannoush, Monica Hannoush and Gov. Baker encircle an artist rendering of the proposed plaza at 99 Springfield Rd (WNG file photo)
WESTFIELD–Gov. Charles Baker and several other local politicians were at the Shortstop Bar and Grille on Springfield Road to present a MassWorks grant for a new traffic light project in front of the business.
The $1.926 million project was presented to Nabil Hannoush, the owner of the plot of land where Shortstop Bar and Grille and other businesses are located. The money will be used for the MassWorks Springfield Road Traffic Signal Infrastructure Project, which will help to ease traffic and promote business in the area.
“This is a very, very big day for Westfield,” Mayor Brian Sullivan said. “We’ve been waiting a very, very long time for this project.”
Hannoush, Sullivan and others said that the project has been in development for over two years. The money is part of the MassWorks Infrastructure Program, which is a state-funded program used to promote “economic development and job creation,” according to the mass.gov website.
Monica and Nabil Hanoush have a private conversation with Governor Baker (Photo by Lynn Boscher
“I am a big believer of MassWorks for a lot of reasons,” Gov. Baker said. “It’s flexible and in many respects its the program that gives us the most flexibility to build communities.”
Baker said that the grant was extremely competitive, receiving attention from 114 different applicants. With the grant, Westfield joins Greenfield, Lee, Chesterfield and Charlemont as western Massachusetts municipalities that recently received money from the program.
“It’s about helping to expand and beautify the gateway of Westfield,” Hannoush said of the project. “This is something that will alleviate the traffic, and it’s also about job creation. It’s all about job creation in western Massachusetts right now.”
An artist rendering of the Hannoush property located at 99 Springfield Rd (WNG file photo)
Rob Levesque, of R. Levesque Associates Inc., who designed the project, said that the project is set to start road construction in August 2017 and is anticipated to end in June 2018.
Levesque said that the first part of construction is a widening of the road where the light will be. This will help to reduce traffic by increasing flow through the intersection and allowing vehicles to turn into businesses more easily.
Following the widening the light that is being put up will be synchronized with other lights on Springfield Road, allowing for improved flow, as well. The lights will be time-synchronized through a mixture of wired and wireless communications, Levesque said.
Hannoush said that he was uncertain how many businesses would be developed in the location once the traffic light is installed, but did say that they would be a combination of family-friendly or health-related businesses, keeping in line with the current development in the plaza.
