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GRAFTON, Mass. – The Depot Street Bridge will be back to two-way traffic by the end of November after repair estimates came in $30,000 below budget.
Selectmen on Tuesday approved a $95,000 contract with R. Bates and Sons, Inc. of Sterling to fix the bridge's sidewalk, which was declared structurally unsafe by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation more than a year ago. With the sidewalk closed off by Jersey barriers and a makeshift sidewalk in place, there has been only enough space for traffic to exit Depot Street from the Ferry Street side, with no entry from Providence Road.
The project is coming in well below budget, Town Engineer Brian Sczcurko said. The initial budget request was $125,000.
"We're going to be able to do both sides of the bridge for less than what we estimated," Sczcurko said.
Work is expected to begin within the next two weeks. The contractor has an Oct. 31 deadline for substantial completion and must be completely finished by Nov. 30, Sczcurko said.
Comments (7)
Incessant complaining. Either you have too much time or you have an ego complex. Which one? Both? Oh wait, your message is pure and noble...just trying to help...challenge the evil empire of wasteful, malicious, incompetent spending in Grafton. Fighting the good fight? Walked uphill both ways? 25 years of pain?
I like Grafton and I think the people who run things are not stupid.
I've lived in Grafton for 25 years, and I'm not stupid either.
A little $omething is better than nothing....send that money down the river for the treatment plant!
There are a lot of hard working dedicated people working is this town that you like to crap on. You just can't shake it can you.
re: Koji, The Selectmen and the T.A. have agreed amongst themselves that they want to "freeze the tax rate" at this years highest peak rate. By doing this, they can add to the towns debt next year while telling the taxpayer that "it will not add to your taxes". The truth is this is the peak tax year for bills, next year all our taxes will begin to recede.
Koji, have you agreed to keep your taxes at this years peak level? Have the Selectmen and the TA told you about their accounting scheme?
And oh yea, this extra $400 annual sewer bill is not considered a tax, it's a fee, so the Selectmen will try to ignore its expense through October's town meeting, when they will be asking for yet another $5.3 million, plus another $ million siphoned off from the school building committee to install central A.C. at the muni center.
It's nice to read that a bill came in $30K less than anticipated. But taking in context with that selectmen's meeting, that the sewer plant upgrade is going to cost an extra $30+ million, or just another $400 per year user rate increase. I hardly feel comforted by this "good news".