Rod Hirsch
You don’t have to look very far to notice the progress along Somerville’s West Main Street and if you’re not careful, you may trip over a piece of that progress.
Busting up sidewalks and burying utility lines is the preliminary event leading up to the long-awaited extension of South Davenport Street to the intersection with Main Street.
Once that work is completed, the state Department of Transportation will be moving in heavy machinery to begin the repaving of Main Street, beginning at Doughty Street and heading eastward to Gaston Avenue, according to Colin Driver, Somerville’s Director of Economic Development.
Work crews are installing "in-ground" control boxes and wiring for traffic signals planned at the intersection of South Davenport Street and Main Street.
Further evidence of the progress at the construction site between Main Street and Veterans Memorial Drive is the relocation of the construction fence along Main Street to within six feet of the curb, which narrows the walkway for pedestrians. Over the next 12-18 months, the sidewalk will be restricted as work crews continue to relocate utility lines from the construction site to main lines beneath Main Street.
JSM Properties is redeveloping the 13-acre site of the former Somerville Shopping Center, with work ongoing at the former Pathmark Supermarket, which has been expanded from 56,000 to 70,000 square feet, and is scheduled to reopen as a ShopRite sometime Thanksgiving week, according to Driver.
“They’re moving faster than we had anticipated which is good,” Driver said. “The installation work they are doing now is very important because DOT will resurface Main Street starting in the next three weeks or so from Doughty east up Gaston and along Union Street to Bridgewater.
“We’ve been juggling a lot of balls lately because we had to get JSM completed before DOT comes through,” he continued, explaining that the state agency imposes a five-year moratorium on road reopening for utility work after a state highway has been resurfaced.
The breakthrough of Davenport Street to Main Street is a key event in the evolution of the JSM project, according to Driver.
“Physically, it defines the site east and west; the supermarket is moving along at a tremendous rate of speed as well. They are on track to meet all deadlines and be open for the Thanksgiving holiday,” Driver said.
The DOT has not yet announced a starting date for the repaving project, with much of the work being done at night, according to Driver. Before the resurfacing begins, the top two inches of the existing roadway will be “milled” with new blacktop replacing the old surface. Detours have yet to be determined, he added.