MARK CRESSOTTI
WESTFIELD – Residents living in neighborhoods off Main Street corridor are invited to attend a public informational meeting at the South Middle School auditorium Monday night to discuss the scope of work of an ambitious roadway improvement project which will have impact on those neighborhoods.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti and the project consultants, Tighe & Bond, will provide residents with details of the proposed Old Town Roadways Reconstruction Project of 2014 at the 7 p.m. information meeting.
The meeting will focus on the design effort to reconstruct the streets in the target area. The streets which will be improved includes East Silver, State, Cross, Ashley, George, Frederick, Noble, Cycle streets. Also included in the project are Taylor, Cleveland, Parkside and Lozier avenues, and Lindbergh Boulevard.
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, Noble and Cross streets as well as Lindbergh Boulevard.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti said Friday that the city has divided the project, because of the scope of work and based on financing, into two phases. Phase 1 is the work in the Cross Street, Taylor Avenue, State Street and Ashley Street neighborhoods which need to upgraded infrastructure 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 and constructing new sidewalks and curbing.
Phase 2 is the other streets, including Noble Street, where a larger water line will be installed to provide fire protection at the Senior Center. Cressotti said that initially an eight-inch water line under McKinley Terrace will be extended up Noble to the senior center site, as well as a six-inch main from Murphy Circle to create a looped system.
“The paving triggers other infrastructure improvements which will follow as the roads are opened for reconstruction,” Cressotti said. Each street will have improvements depending on the condition of the existing infrastructure and may include installation of water and stormwater line improvements.
The project includes other features, such as sidewalk reconstruction, treescape planting and traffic calming facilities on Lindbergh Boulevard and Noble Street.
“We’d like to hear what the residents have to say about different aspects of the project,” Cressotti said.
Cressotti estimated that the design cost of the multi-year project will be about $200,000 and that the Phase 1 work is estimated at $2 million, while the Phase 2 price tag is projects at $3.5 million.
The project plans will be available for viewing at 6:30 p.m. before the start of the 7 p.m. informational hearing.
