meeting opens
Dean College's Brian Kelly provides some safety logistics about the room we are in here at Dean.
Town Administrator Jeff Nutting introduces the key folks part of the evening Questions and Answers and then Rep Jeff Roy provides some opening remarks in his role as one of the State liaisons.
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| Jeff Nutting - at podium introducing the remaining folks |
Dave (last name not captured) - Walsh Construction
focus of work this year will be Main St to Lincoln, primarily underground work, then grinding up the road prior to re-paving. Anticipate having all the underground work and a binder layer done before the winter. In 2015, we'll come back to begin the sidewalks, etc. which will take more time (we'll have the full season to do so).
Final coating should be all done in one smooth continuous cover.
Nutting - There'll be some pole replacements and the State can speak to the coordination.
George Merdi - State, construction engineer
coordinating the utility work to be done. The utility work is critical to the timeline of the schedule. The utility companies are on board.
Nutting - will there be traffic flow during the construction?
Dave - when feasible, there will be detours noted for work for the day (removed at the end of the day)
Nutting - access to the driveway?
Dave - will try to provide what we can during the day, at least at the end of the day
Q - on the map, there is a small section of Summer St, what about the remainder of Summer St?
Nutting - Yes, the first 100 feet or so from East Central is part of the downtown project. The remainder of Summer St is a town project, water line this year and paving next year as we normally do. Trying to coordinate the schedule between the two during the year.
Q - can you take us back through the project, what it will be like at the end?
Nutting - Obtained funding in 2002, the ultimate goal to get the fire station off the one way street. (2) To slow down traffic on Main St. Speed bump curb to curb at Depot St, and at Dean at the crosswalk. (3) studies have shown that not all the traffic wanted to go on Main St, so the traffic staying on 140 can do so. (4) aesthetic improvements, brick walks, utilities underground, period lighting.
There is no indication that the traffic getting through town will be any faster. The funding was $1M per year beginning in 2005, so we wouldn't have had all of it until 2010 anyway.
Did look at under grounding utilities from Ruggles to West Central but it didn't make sense financially. Will still some overhead wires there.
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| photo of the map handed out at the meeting |
Map detail - The green coloring indicates work being done in 2014. The blue and yellow sections will be done in 2015. The blue is the full roadway rebuild on Main St. The yellow is the mill and re-paving along East/West Central and Emmons Sts.
Q - line on my property seems to be in the middle, is that where it will stay?
Nutting - we have the full plan docs here, the same contractor did the Union St work a couple of years ago.
Q - what is the change order process?
Nutting - we'll have the info available. No guarantee but submit it, it will be reviewed and decided.
Q - what will the Main St be like?
Nutting - there'll be a base coat down before the winter will be here.
Q - sense of Bridge to Emmons St?
Dave - all of next year, early Apr through the summer. Construction equipment? There will be times it will be closed.
Nutting - Main St is a full depth reconstruction
Dave - right now it will be all daylight work.
Nutting - water and sewer is already done, the State will be doing some drainage
Q - what about parking?
Nutting - we are looking at alternative areas. Perhaps Emmons st. The Post Office is putting their own parking lot in, so that will help us. May prohibit commuter parking for a period
There is a sequence for doing the bridge in 3 phases, you can come down and review the details.
Q - what about the width of the road?
The right of way will not be any wider. The structure of the bridge will not be touched.
Q - what about the work in front of the fire station?
The fire dept will not be impacted during the work period.
Q - on the quality of the asphalt mix?
Q - What about the trees? Some of them have colored ribbons.
Dave - orange indicates trees to be protected, blue to be removed; we'll be coming in next week to start putting the protection in and around the trees
Q - no handicap accessible access on Main St?
Nutting - that is why we are doing this. The work we are doing is going to be all ADA compliant
Q - considering some lights? At St Mary's trying to turn left coming up Beaver.
Nutting - there is no signalization in this work. There is no plan to change any of the signals in this work
Q - Anything ore on the timing for downtown next year?
Dave - we'll concentrate on doing the full depth first, the lions share of the West Central/Emmons would be later next year.
Brutus - mill and overlay will be fairly quick, you can do it in about two weeks
Q - on street lighting downtown vs. Union St where it is light up like a Christmas tree
Downtown will be getting the period lighting, the East Central area will remain with above ground poles and lights
Q - What about the Emmons St lot?
Nutting - there is nothing decided yet, the Town Council has to consider that. Even to go through a public process to dispose of the property, it could be set to be available in fall of 2015.
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| Jeff Nutting facilitating answers to the questions |
Q - when will the traffic turn?
Nutting - when it is all done, hopefully some time Sep/Oct 2015. It could be as late as Apr 2016
Q - there'll be times when our students will be moving in and out, where we have to communicate with 1,000 families
Nutting - we will keep you informed and work with the abutters as issues come up. This is a MA project so we (Franklin) will be in a communication role.
Q - what is the normal day hours
Nutting/Dave - 7-3 normally on M-F
Q - on how to get to Main St
Nutting - Coming east on West Central, you'll turn left on Emmons and right on Main.
Q - how do GPS people know that Franklin has no gone two-way?
Nutting - call Google?
Q - on parking along Main St down by St Mary's, currently can be done on both sides?
Nutting - we'll need to look at that, maybe need to restrict parking
Q - what about the meters?
Nutting - they'll come out during the construction but the Town Council has not yet decided what to do. We could enforce 2 hour parking without meters.
Q - Emmons up to Ray St?
Nutting no change, it will remain one way
We'll be getting the communications and notifications out in the next couple of weeks.
closing meeting
