JIM MULVENNA
WESTFIELD – The Board of Public Works voted last night to authorize Public Works Superintendent Jim Mulvenna to sign invoices for work as it is completed on the Columbia Greenway Project, responsibility usually part of the board’s oversight of the department. That action was taken at the request of the city’s Engineering Department.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti said the $2 million state grant, awarded through the Executive Office of Energy & Environment, is “time sensitive and in this case we’re using Chapter 90 funds” which come to the Public Works Department as justification for issuing the authority to Mulvenna.
Cressotti also requested that board to vote to authorize Mulvenna to sign change orders not to exceed $100,000 because the scope of the project continues to change.
The Board of Public Works voted unanimously in May of 2012 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, an effort which includes extensive bridge work. That bridge work originally included refurbishing Tin Bridge over Little River, as well as removal and replacement of a span over South Meadow Road. That work may be expanded to include removal of the East Silver Street rail bridge, as well.
The contract initially included construction of a bicycle path off the main trail, leading down to South Broad Street near the South Middle School and several youth facilities.
The side path would have been built on top of the old rail spur that went to the Strathmore Paper plant on South Broad Street. The present owners of the plant, Sullivan Transportation have no use for the spur which is inactive since that section of railroad track was abandoned.
The spur property was assessed to have a value of $25,000 and an appropriation request for that amount was under review by the City Council’s Finance Committee when it was withdrawn because the company abutting the spur, Commercial Distributing, was interested in expanding its facility onto that land.
Cressotti said that after the spur path construction was eliminated from the scope of work, the city added another element, removal of the East Silver Street Bridge.
“The goal is to use all of that grant money,” Cressotti said.
The BPW also approved a change order to the engineering contract with Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. (VHB) which designed the project. Under the change order VHB will supervise construction of the trail and bridge work.
“The $2 million state grant requires on site supervision because there is one bridge bring reconstructed, one being replaced,” Cressotti said, adding that the Engineer Department cannot provide that oversight because it will be directly involved with several city projects such as the Gaslight District road reconstruction, the Williams Riding Way pump station reconstruction and the addition of dedicated left turning lanes at the intersection of North Elm and Notre Dame streets, work that will start after the opening of the Pochassic Street (Drug Store Hill) Bridge by June
Cressotti said the VHB contract for $123,500 will be funded through Chapter 90 and that the firm which designed the current phase of trail work had provided supervision of the contractors when the initial 5,000 feet of the trail, from the Southwick line to just south of Tin Bridge, was built.
The current phase will extend the trail another three-quarters of a mile, across Tin Bridge to just south of East Silver Street and will connect with Bliss Street and Coleman Avenue.
