WESTFIELD -The Board of Public Works voted Tuesday night to increase design and engineering funding for the Old Town Roadway reconstruction project by $50,500 at the request of the city Engineering Department.
Assistant City Engineer Greg Freeman presented detail of change order #3 to the Tighe & Bond contract for the design effort to reconstruct the streets between East Silver and Main Street.
Freeman said last night that the scope of the design and engineering work has been expanded to include permitting and traffic studies in the target area which includes East Silver, State, Cross Ashley, George, Frederick, Noble, Cycle and Exchange streets. Also included in the project are Cleveland, Parkside and Lozier avenues, Lindbergh Boulevard and Old Town Fordway.
Freeman said the engineering work will include the preparation of bid documents.
The city has divided the project, because of the scope of work, into two phases. Phase 1 is the work in the Cross and Ashley streets neighborhoods needed to upgrade infrastructure in that area in support of the proposed Ashley Street elementary school construction.
Those improvements include replacement of water lines, burying the current above-ground utility lines and sidewalk improvements as well as paving the streets. The city has decided that additional environmental review and permitting are needed in conjunction with that work.
Phase 2 is the other streets, including Noble Street where the city is in the design phase of a $7 million senior citizen center.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti said that phase 2 may leapfrog phase 1, which is currently being held up by an Article 97 appeal initiated by Cross Street residents, because of infrastructure improvements needed to support the senior center project.
The Noble Street improvements will include upgrades to the water lines, drainage, sidewalks and the roadway. The change order includes a traffic study for Noble Street, as well as nearby residential streets, to determine if a dedicated turning lane needs to be constructed for northbound traffic, moving from East Silver Street toward Main Street, at the entrance of the senior center.
Cressotti said the full construction project will take several years to complete and that the Noble Street work may be scheduled for early next year because of the rapid progress in the design of the senior center project.
“There is a lot involved in that (senior center) project,” Cressotti said.
