WESTFIELD—As the thumping and grinding of construction equipment continue to pummel the earth and our eardrums downtown, The Westfield News discussed the status and future of several projects downtown with two key planners in the city–city engineer Mark Cressotti and city advancement officer Joe Mitchell.
Here is a recap of the discussions.
From Mark Cressotti, city engineer:
MARK CRESSOTTI
-Regarding the Gas Light District, construction efforts will be continuing through the summer and up until at least Dec. Cressotti said though, “we’re going to wrap up as soon as possible,” giving residents some hope.
-Summer St. and Spring St. will have continuing work done on them, as Westfield Gas and Electric and Public Works work on the infrastructure of the two streets. Currently, the two sit unpaved but traffic has been traveling on them.
The intersection of Spring St. and Summer St., where the roads are currently unpaved.
-Scheduling and elongating work will happen, in part because of the coordination efforts of Westfield Gas and Electric and the city, Cressotti said. Gas and Electric will be putting certain equipment underground during the times of construction, which may further delay projects.
-The Pocket Park, which is in front of The Hangar on Church St., will start to be under construction in the coming weeks.
-Work progresses at North Elm St. and Notre Dame St., but according to Cressotti there are some delays regarding coordination of the project, but it will be moving forward. Expect to continue to see traffic delays going through there until further notice.
-The Western Ave. project is being constrained by money from the state government, Cressotti said. This has resulted in the project being moved out a year.
-Franklin St. repaving will be identified in the Mayoral budget to be addressed. This effort will be reflected in the FY 2017 budget, which begins July 1. No date for construction yet.
-The Columbia Rail Trail will continue construction in FY 2019. The bridge over the Westfield River however, will start its transformation to bike- and pedestrian-accessible June 11.
Mark Cressotti was a guest on The Westfield News Radio Show on Thursday June 2nd.
From Joe Mitchell, City Advancement Officer:
The beginning of destructing the spot for the transit pavilion.
-PVTA’s transit pavilion will be finished in March 2017. The plaza where it will be housed will also include business and walking spaces, as well as plants and curbing put in to improve the aesthetics.
-Following the completion of the transit pavilion, the bus loading zone that is currently on Elm St. will be converted to parking spaces. The number is not definite according to Mitchell, but will be between six to eight spaces.
-Additional parking spots will be added in the area, as well as a potential parking garage. The parking garage is estimated to be a 350-
The beginning of construction for the transit pavilion.
or 500-car garage. If it is a 350-car garage, then it will have four tiers for parking, and if it is a 500-car garage it will have six tiers for parking.
The bus stop on Elm St. that will become on-street parking.
-The city allocated $509,000 for the purchase of three lots in the Gas Light District. The lots are the former Romani’s Bowling Alley, as well as two parcels of land next to that building.
-Demolition of the Romani building on Church St. is scheduled to begin in Dec. and will include purchasing three tracts of land.
-The City hopes that a private developer will design and construction a four- to six-story multi-use building that will accompany the parking garage. The building will be constructed on Elm St., near Arnold St., and will include spaces for retail, business and residential use.
-As construction begins to wrap up, the city will also be conducting beautifying measures to improve the overall appeal of the downtown area, or what is known as “improving the public realm.” Its purpose will be to try and create a denser environment that Mitchell said will potentially attract people out of their cars and into the downtown area, thus increasing foot traffic and increasing the likelihood of them visiting and using downtown retailers.
