Construction continues on the new Pochassic Street Bridge Friday. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
EASTHAMPTON – Residents of the city of Easthampton saw the welcome reopening of vital city link Thursday, as the Manhan Bridge returned to full operation after four and a half months of construction, over a month ahead of it's December 3 deadline.
Meanwhile, the pace of reconstruction on Westfield's Pochassic Street Bridge remains akin to that of molasses and, with a prospective reopening slated for next spring, many locals are wondering “what gives?”
New steel and wood bracing secures the underside of the Pochassic Street Bridge Friday. The bridge was deemed unsafe and closed to vehicle traffic in 2010 by the Department of Transportation. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
“Bridges take what they take,” said Westfield City Engineer Mark Cressotti. “Our bridge (Pochassic) has had a number of delays, but we want to see it done.”
Representative John Scibak (D-South Hadley) got together with Easthampton Mayor Michael Tautznik and former State Senator Michael Knapik to help set the parameters of contract for the Manhan Bridge repair, which was funded through the state Department of Transportation (MassDOT.)
“We asked 'is there anything we can do?'” Scibak said. “There were businesses that were being affected, so the sooner it got done the better.”
Large steel i-beams mounted on new concrete bases span the Pioneer Valley Railroad yard as contractors continue to work on the new Pochassic Street Bridge Friday. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Scibak has proposed legislation that would look to implement more incentives and regulations for construction.
“There was a bridge that needed to be widened in Hadley, on Route 9,” Scibak said. “That project took awhile because the contractor left their equipment everywhere and stalled the process.”
Scibak said that Easthampton's contract with Northern Construction of Palmer and Weymouth had a $100,000 bonus written into it for finishing the project ahead of the December deadline, while a fine of $3,300 would be assessed for each day it was past that deadline.
When asked whether there were any special considerations of that nature written into the Pochassic contract with R. Bates & Sons of Clinton, Cressotti stressed that the project is a non-municipal project and that he is unaware of whether any bonuses or considerations were written into the contract.
Westfield Mayor Daniel M. Knapik also stressed that the project was a MassDOT job, and that it didn't come with any incentives.
“MassDOT is hesitant to give a date,” he said. “It's up to them. Even though we think it's important, it'd been closed for over a year (before construction began).”
“It's progressing,” added Knapik of Pochassic. “When construction is over, you get used to it. It's been a long time for people on the hill, longer than we've wanted it to be.”
Regarding how the Pochassic project could be sped up, Scibak said that Westfield may have missed it's chance.
“When you go out for a bid, you have to put that in the contract,” he said. “Before the contract was signed, the contractors knew they could either save or it would cost them.”
Asked why the incentives were put in, Scibak said it was to reduce inconvenience and to “protect the interest of the city's businesses.”
“If you used the detour (for the Manhan Bridge), you'd never see them,” Scibak said of the downtown businesses affected by the construction.
“The Pochassic was included in the Great River Bridge Project,” said Representative Don Humason Jr. (R-Westfield). “But, in order to keep costs down, it was held back. Then, a week into Mayor Knapik's first term (in 2010), the state closed it without warning.”
Humason said that he, the mayor, and then-Senator Michael R. Knapik went before the state to get the project moving, and got it moved up a year.
The complex nature of the Pochassic's construction makes comparing it with Manhan an unfair assessment.
“Pochassic is a far more complicated bridge,” Humason said. “Manhan is relatively simple. It didn't include an arch or railroad tracks and the City of Westfield wanted to keep that historic arch.”
“There was only so much money to go around,” added Michael Knapik on why the Pochassic Street Bridge was cut from the Great River Bridge Project. “The cost was escalating, so Pochassic was scrapped. But that bridge has been the bane of a lot of people's existance for quite some time now.”
Regarding the incentives written into the Northern Construction/Manhan contract, Knapik said that the state has started to get savvier with it's contracts, which give contractors the extra push.
“Route 10 is a critical corridor,” said Knapik, now the Executive Director of University Advancement at Westfield State University. “(Manhan) was placed on the Accelerated Bridge Program by the state. It met all the standards and specifications. It was using a lot of pre-fabricated materials. It had a lot of factors working in it's favor and it went through all the proper planning.”
