By Scott MacKeen
Staff Writer
12/17/09
Selectmen have approved a memorandum
agreement with the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority for a continuation of local water-main replacements down Adams Street into the
Lower Mills.
Selectmen agreed to allow the MWRA to accept bids for the project beginning this month.
MWRA spokeswoman Ria Convery said
the construction, which started in East Milton
Square last year, may pick back up again as early as late February.
Milton Public Works Director Joe Lynch said it is a roughly two-and-a-half-year project.
According to the agreement, which Selectmen authorized Town Administrator Kevin Mearn to sign, the contractor will be replacing roughly 9,200 feet of MWRA-owned pipeline that supplies water to both Milton and Quincy, some of which is over 100 years old. Of that, the MWRA is responsible for the cost of 1,300 feet of pipeline replacement. The town must pay for the remaining cost of around $650,000, which can be paid out of funds it receives through the
MWRA local pipeline assistance program.
According to Convery, construction likely will start on Adams Street near East Milton Square. A contract for the project was slated to be awarded Dec. 16 at an MWRA board meeting.
He said he expects there to be some traffic detail during the work but no major impact to pedestrian access.
According to the contract, MWRA work will be allowed between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. or dusk (whichever is later) Monday through Saturday on Adams Street from Centre Street to the Randolph and Canton Avenue intersection and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Centre Street to Bryant Avenue.
The MWRA will be allowed to pursue the project during the winter months rather than being subject to the town ban on winter road openings.
Mearn said the MWRA will explain the project in the public before beginning construction.
“Good care and attention will have to be paid to traffic. This is a main thorough-way in Milton,” Mearn said.