Westfield City Engineer Mark Cressotti, right foreground, and Matthew J. Chase, right background, project engineer for Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., of Worcester, present an illustrated drawing of the newly redesigned intersection of North Elm and Notre Dame streets during a meeting in the Westfield High School auditorium in April, as more than 50 residents listen. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – City officials are pushing back the start of a major reconfiguration project on North Elm Street at the intersection of Notre Dame Street. Initially, that work was anticipated to begin later this summer following the opening of the Pochassic Street Bridge but will apparently be delayed until the spring of 2015.
City Purchasing Director Tammy Tefft said this morning that the city is seeking to obtain more competitive construction bids that would be received by advertising the project at this time of year.
TAMMY TEFFT
“A lot of companies already have set work for the summer (construction season) and they have to fit you in,” Tefft said. “So when you bid out at this time of the year you normally get higher bids. It is more advantageous for the city to bid a project in late fall or early winter, when companies are looking for projects with a spring start.”
City Engineer Mark Cressotti, himself a resident of Prospect Hill, and Matthew Chase, P.E. of Vanasse Hangen Brustlin (VHB) Inc., detailed the project, which is intended to relieve congestion at that intersection, at an April 14 informational meeting attended by more than 70 Prospect Hill and Notre Dame neighborhood residents.
Cressotti said the improvement concept is to add dedicated left turn lanes to both the northbound and southbound traffic on North Elm Street.
Chase said that the bridge over Powdermill Brook limits the addition for a southbound left turn lane to about 50 feet, sufficient length to queue three to four vehicles intending to turn left onto lower Notre Dame Street.
The northbound left-turn lane will be about 250 feet long, sufficient to queue 20 vehicles intending to turn left to go up Notre Dame Street toward Prospect Hill.
“The city has the desire to introduce that central turning lane,” Cressotti said at the April meeting. “The current four lane configuration is not sufficient for the volume of traffic and the turning movements. So there will be two through lanes for northbound traffic and two through lanes for southbound traffic, in addition to the dedicated left turn lanes north (to upper Notre Dame Street) and south (to lower Notre Dame Street), meaning that the street will be widened to a total of five lanes at that intersection.”
The traffic improvement project also includes widening Upper Notre Dame Street at the North Elm Street intersection to accommodate motorists, in particular trucks, intending to make a right turn onto the southbound lanes of North Elm Street.
Cressotti said yesterday that the scope of the project has been expanded to address concerns raised by residents during the information hearing, including applying to the state for truck exclusion on lower Notre Dame Street.
The Board of Public Works approved additional funding for VHB to perform the engineering work and documentation which has to be submitted to the DOT for its truck exclusion review.
