Cost Increase Likely to Delay Dalton Road Project
The MPO voted to send the updated plan out for public comment. |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Planning officials are recommending Dalton hold off on the Housatonic Street project for another three years after estimated costs jumped by $2 million.
Instead, the money set aside for the Dalton project would to go Lee.
The Metropolitan Planning Organization, a subset of the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission that prioritizes local construction projects for the state, moved to replace the funds on Tuesday.
The Lee project will reconstruct two miles of Tyringham Road — a project that has been fully designed for the last year and been waiting for funding.
The amended plan now goes to public comment before facing ultimate approval. Officials recommended the change because in the last two weeks, the design phased bumped the cost of the Housatonic project up to $7.5 million over two years. That is more than the county's targeted funds.
"With the $2 million, it is not possible to go in 2013 and be completed in 2014," Transportation Planner Anuja Koirala said.
According to a letter from the engineering firm GPI, designers found additional culvert and drainage modifications, stormwater controls and wetland replication were needed, all of which were never anticipated. Additionally, a block wall had to be changed to reduce wetland impacts, which increased that cost.
State officials had concerns with the project beginning by October. Federal Highway funds cannot be carried over to the next year, so the partial federal monies eyed for the project need to be spent by then. Dalton still needs to finish the design work and have them reviewed by the state, and the town needs to secure rights of way.
Dalton Town Manager Kenneth Walto, in an effort to avoid a delay, said the construction could start in time and outlined a three-month period to complete those steps. Planners say design work will be completed in June and by July all of the engineering will be completed. Meanwhile, the town is waiting for appraisals to be completed on about 30 properties to get right of way agreements in place, Walto said.
"We expect all of the appraisal work in July and we can move to all of the takings in August," Walto said.
He added that many of the property owners are giving up the land voluntarily and voters have already approved taking the rest by eminent domain if needed.
However, Lee has less work to do. Mark Moore, of the state Department of Transportation, said Lee has already completed 100 percent design and has only one parcel without a right of way agreement, which he expects to be completed in the next three weeks. Lee's project is also expected to cost $5.9 million, which is only slightly more than the Dalton project was originally predicted.
"Everything else is done," Moore said.
With the recommendation of moving the Tyringham Road project up, planners then had to piece the project into the schedule for the next four years. Koirala said the prioritized projects already scheduled and the allocated amounts in the funding sources places Dalton into beginning construction in 2016.
Additionally, three bridges were added to the plan for this construction season.
The bridge funding is allocated outside of the county's annual targeted amount and two bridges in Sandisfield and one in Sheffield are now penciled in for work. In Sheffield, the bridge over the Housatonic Railroad on Route 7A will be replaced and in Sandisfield a bridge on Route 8 over Silvernail Brook will receive maintenance and a bridge over the Farmington River on Clark Road will be replaced.
Tags: Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, road work,
