By Ken Liebeskind CEG CORRESPONDENT
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A Portland, Ore., design firm has been chosen to create the expansion of the Portland Museum of Art (PMA) all the way across the country in Maine’s largest city.
LEVER Architecture recently was named the winner in the much-heralded international competition to design the $100 million project that will add approximately 60,000 sq. ft. of space to the campus. Museum officials wanted a new facility that “knits together” with the PMA’s four existing downtown buildings to boost its visitor count to between 300,000 and 500,000 people per year, according to Bustler.net, an online design news site.
LEVER, which has recently stood out for its application of mass timber constructions, will again incorporate the material heavily into the design of the PMA expansion, along with glass and terra cotta culminating with a curvilinear roofline meant to frame the movement of the sun in what the firm said is a reference to the local Wabanaki Indigenous community’s conception of place.
The Maine Monitor reported that in building the museum expansion with mass timber, PMA and LEVER also are interested in utilizing a material that helps slow carbon emissions and staves off the most catastrophic effects of a warmer world.
“The PMA’s competition brief was a challenge to the very definition of what a museum is,” LEVER Principal Chandra Robinson said in a press release. “It was a call to action to designers around the world to question what it means to truly design for people, for communities, and for a specific place in the world. We would not have been able to challenge the idea of a museum without conceptualizing a new model of inclusive participation. Our teams’ perspectives on Wabanaki culture, community engagement, and universal accessibility were at the root of this design process.”
LEVER beat out three other finalists for the design contract in a competition that included 104 total entries from 20 different countries.
“This is one of the most significant moments in the PMA’s 140-year history,” PMA Director Mark Bessire said about the competition effort. “LEVER, and the team [it has] assembled, have demonstrated that they care deeply about our region’s future, our unique arts culture and the needs of our community. They share our values of courage, equity, service, sustainability and trust, and we can’t wait to get to work with LEVER and our communities to imagine Maine’s next great landmark.”
PMA has not yet released information on when the museum’s construction in Portland is set to begin.
Strong, Sturdy, Eco-Friendly Material
Mass timber, short for “massive timber,” is occasionally thought of as “plywood on steroids” as its composition is similar. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glulam — short for glue laminated timber — involves gluing together and compressing large planks of sawn, dried timber, usually softwoods like spruce, pine and fir.
The resulting beams are stronger than steel and can be used to erect towers rising hundreds of feet, like a recently
A contract for more than $6.4 million to build an addition and renovation project at Bristol, Maine’s Consolidated School was won by Portland’s Optimum Construction Co. during a meeting of the Bristol School Committee on Jan. 4.
The following evening, about 25 people attended a presentation to hear the details of the project at the Bristol Consolidated School (BCS) gymnasium, according to the Lincoln County News, a local news source on the south coast of Maine. The school is located at 2153 Bristol Rd. in Pemaquid.
unveiled 18-story, 280-ft.-tall architectural marvel in the riverside town of Brumunddal, Norway.
Closer to home, Bowdoin College is finishing Maine’s first commercial mass timber structure, slated to open this spring, according to the Monitor.
Mass timber offers an attractive alternative for developers of large buildings, the news site noted, because rather than generating greenhouse gases during its production (like steel and concrete), trees store carbon while they are growing and after they have been cut down. The timber panels also are faster to assemble and also can be cut precisely to size, which means less construction site waste. It is also renewable as more trees can be planted to replace the ones used in building.
Mass timber beams are lightweight compared to other construction materials — the tower in Norway had to be weighed down with concrete floors to prevent it from swaying in the wind and sickening its occupants. Additionally, due to concerns around fire and water infiltration, insurance costs for mass timber structures are often high — one Canadian study found insurance costs were five to seven times higher for tall wood buildings compared to those built with non-combustible materials.
During the construction phase, Robinson said, another of the primary challenges is where to get the timber. Choosing trees from sustainably managed forests is key: if you are trying to reduce the amount of carbon generated by construction, the trees cut down must be replaced. It also means using trees that are as local as possible, since shipping them thousands of miles cancels out any benefits.
There has long been interest in CLT and glulam in the state, but Maine currently has no manufacturers of either, noted Robinson. Several proposals to produce mass timber have fallen apart in recent years due to a variety of issues.
“It has frustrated me for the last six years that we have not been able to attract a mass timber manufacturer to Maine, the most forested state in the nation,” Matt Tonello, head of Maine operations for Portland’s Consigli Construction, told Green & Healthy Maine HOMES last year.
There is the potential to source the museum expansion’s timber in Maine, Robinson explained, and have it made into structural panels in a nearby state. He also is hopeful the project will help the push for mass timber regionally.
“This is the journey we’re going to embark on — to see what makes sense and see how we can leverage the materials Maine has.”
The latter meeting’s speakers included Bristol School Committee Chair Darin Carlucci, Lynsey Johnston, superintendent of the Central Lincoln County School System (AOS 93), BCS Principal Jennifer Ribeiro, and Forrest Butler and Andy Jackson, representatives from Peaks Island-based Dovetail Consulting, the managers of the project, each of whom took turns explaining the project, its goals, and the bid process and construction timeline.
The bid from Optimum Construction will need formal approval by voters at Bristol’s annual town meeting on March 20. Voters in the community of about 2,800 people also will consider an $8 million bond to finance the project, the county news source reported.
In outlining the goals of the school’s construction project, Carlucci said the work will provide increased security to students and staff, save on annual costs by improving electric and heat efficiency, make the building and its bathrooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), increase space for students, and build a cafeteria that can double as a multi-purpose community room.
He added that the BCS will net two new classrooms, as well as three-phase power to the building, and heat pumps will be installed throughout the structure.
The News reported that among the remaining issues are an increase in the student population and the school’s need for a new cafeteria, a sprinkler system throughout the entire building, and a replacement for what Carlucci called its “antique” air exchange system.
When she spoke, AOS 93 Superintendent Johnston explained that the school’s classrooms will undergo renovation and expansion to create more space for students, including a 1,061-sq.-ft. technology space.
The main need, according to Ribeiro, the principal at BCS, is for a dedicated cafeteria and kitchen space as classrooms will be converted into a cafeteria and kitchen that also will serve as a multi-use community space on the northeastern corner of the building. A separate entrance will allow for the space to be used for municipal functions such as voting while school is in session.
An addition on the northwestern corner of the building will include new classrooms and bathrooms and replace the portable classroom currently found behind the building, she explained.
Because of a year-long lead time on some items due to supply chain issues, like the three-phase electrical power, Dovetail Consulting’s Butler explained that construction on the BCS expansion cannot start until spring 2024 at the earliest, assuming the project is approved at Bristol’s March town meeting.
If the measure succeeds, the finished product should be unveiled by winter 2024.
impairment to the existing interstate.
First planned in 2012, the new type of highway junction was finally approved by the state seven years later. The design has become increasingly popular in other parts of the United States, but the Winooski DDI will be Vermont’s first.
A video on the VTrans project webpage explains how the traffic flow will work with the new Diverging Diamond Interchange.
“The DDI is an innovative traffic configuration where vehicular traffic crosses to the left side of [the U.S. 2/U.S. 7] roadway between the two signalized intersections,” according to the video. “This eliminates difficult left hand turns without increasing the number of lanes or traffic signals.”
In addition, the agency held a public meeting on Jan. 12 to give an update on the $14 million project’s timeline and what drivers can expect when traveling through the exchange.
Michael LaCroix, the project man-
ager of VTrans, noted that making the public aware of the DDI project is important because groundbreaking for the first phase will be at the end of January. He also said that the project footprint expands beyond the highway off-ramps and interchange area, WAMC Northeast Public Radio in Albany, N.Y., reported.
“The scope of the project is reconstruction of [U.S. 2/U.S. 7], otherwise known as Roosevelt Highway, in the town of Colchester, and it begins at the Winooski town line,” he explained. “[From there], it goes 1.05 mi. up north toward Colchester Village and includes not just the roadway corridor but … improvements at signalized intersections as well.”
The largest part of the Winooski DDI project is reconfiguring the highway exchange to the new interchange designs.
For the brief time drivers will cross over to the left side of the road on the DDI, LaCroix pledges that the new lane markings will be clear to them even in winter.
“It’s only 400-ft.-long, at most, and almost all of it is underneath the inter-
state bridges,” he explained. “I can understand people’s discomfort of being on the left side of the road and not having any sort of direction. We’re going to have very robust pavement markings so that they’ll be more durable during the winter when the plows come through.”
The contractor for Vermont’s first DDI is Williston-based S.D. Ireland Construction.
Kurt Hutchins, the assistant project manager of S.D. Ireland, outlined to WAMC where and when blasting is planned, what to expect, and the precautions being taken. He said the blasting is the biggest public concern his company is hearing about regarding the project.
He said people can expect a small series of explosions and a short delay between each one that will cause less ground vibration. As the charges will be placed underground, Hutchins explained, blasting mats will be stretched over the top of the trenches to keep debris from flying out.
Gov. Dan McKee recently announced that a Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued Jan. 17 by the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) for the joint development of a new, modern Transit Center on Dorrance Street in downtown Providence.
The RFP was released via Ocean State Procures (OSP), the state’s procurement portal.
RIPTA is seeking the expertise of private developers nationwide for bold, innovative ideas to guide the design, construction and operations of the new facility.
“The new Transit Center will modernize Rhode Island’s transportation system, improve the experience for riders, lessen our impact on the environment and create a more functional downtown,” McKee said in a news release.
RIPTA’s RFP invites qualified and experienced entities from the private sector to submit proposals to design, build, finance, run and maintain the Dorrance Street Transit Center through a progressive joint development project delivery model. Responses are due April 17, according to the state agency, and a winning bid will be selected later in the spring. From there, a robust period of public dialogue and input with the selected partner will begin the process of creating designs for
the new center.
The new Dorrance Street Transit Center will serve as RIPTA’s central bus depot in Providence, with Kennedy Plaza taking on a reduced number of routes. Initially serving three million public transportation users
annually, and considering expected growth, the new transit center will feature a modern temperature-controlled passenger arrival and seating area, and amenities including multimodal accommodations for bicyclists.
RIPTA also is weighing the creation of a
public meeting space with an open-air terrace, as well as other amenities to serve the community at large. In contrast to the sprawling footprint of Kennedy Plaza, spread out across an urban park, the Dorrance Street station will give riders a single organized location.
Overall, the agency’s proposal envisions a mixed-use development that will include an enclosed intermodal transit center and RIPTA administrative offices, in addition to an adjacent mixed-use transit-oriented development (TOD) envisioned to include first-floor retail and residential housing on the upper floors, offering economic development opportunities for the city.
RIPTA has been engaged in many lengthy discussions over the past year with state, local, and community leaders about the possibility of building a new, multistory, mixeduse transit center at the intersection of Dorrance and Dyer Streets.
The project’s proposal has garnered broad-based public support, according to the transit agency. It is supported, in part, by a bond referendum originally designed to improve RIPTA services via a new transit center in the downtown area and was incorporated into RIPTA’s long-range Transit Master Plan.
A Boston-based architecture firm, Finegold Alexander, has released its designs and plans for a ground-up rebuild of a 1950s-era elementary school in Cranston, R.I.
The city of Cranston and Cranston Public Schools has partnered with the company on the designs of the new, 100,000-sq.-ft. Gladstone Elementary School. Standing three stories tall, the teaching and learning facility will have the capacity for approximately 800 students in grades K–5, serve as the city’s international school, and include the consolidation of both Gladstone and Cranston’s Arlington Elementary.
According to Spaces4Learning, an online news site, Finegold Alexander, a studio known for its innovative educational designs, is using the existing site topography at Gladstone to create a compact building footprint that also promotes energy efficiency. The school’s layout optimizes the building’s solar orientation to maximize natural daylight and views for both teachers and students.
Instead of arranging classrooms along a central corridor, the designers created six distinct “Learning Communities,” each a single suite of interconnected rooms, according to Finegold Alexander. Each floor also
will feature Curiosity Centers for subjects like music, art and maker spaces.
The school’s learning opportunities will extend beyond the building to the larger, outdoor site, where there will be playgrounds and a communal garden.
Gladstone’s social heart and “cafetorium”
will be situated on the first floor, Finegold Alexander noted, bolstering the school’s intention as a safe and secure space for the community. Gathering stairs within the building will offer opportunities for informal seating and social interactions for students, teachers and parents alike,
the company added.
“Finegold Alexander is excited to share the design of the new Gladstone Elementary School,” said Regan Shields Ives, the architecture firm’s principal partner. “[Its] design is focused on fostering interaction, communication, and creativity while giving the school the ability to adapt as [its] needs change over the decades.”
The project is currently in its design development phase and has a projected completion date of summer 2025.
“I wanted to tell you how pleased I am with your firm right now,” Ed Collins, director of plant operations of Cranston Public Schools recently told Finegold Alexander. “You are doing exactly what I thought you could do. We do things very differently [in Cranston] and you have adopted our approach.”
Finegold Alexander has a vast portfolio of K-12 projects across the greater New England region, including the following three in Massachusetts: the Gibbs School in Arlington, Boston’s Eliot Innovation School and Methuen High School. In addition, the firm has a long history of renovating and transforming existing buildings into forward-looking, innovative learning environments.
Work to rebuild the north and southbound bridges involves constructing a new bridge to replace the existing bridges, which were included on the state’s red list before new construction started.
“The overall concept is to construct the median bridge and transfer one barrel of the highway to it and reconstruct the relocated barrel,” NHDOT said. “The work trestle is complete. Pier cofferdam installation is complete for all five piers, removal completed for all piers except Pier 4.”
The “infill” abutments are complete and the new piers for the “infill” bridge are complete. There are five piers, four in the river and one on the embankment between the river and the railroad tracks.
The “median” bridge’s structural steel has been erected, but minor work associated with it will continue.
Some of the precast deck panels have been erected, from Abutment B (NH) to Pier 2.
Scott Stevens is vice president and bridge engineer of R.S. Audley, Bow, N.H., the lead contractor on the project.
“We’ll build the infill bridge between the north and southbound structures then rehab the other two structures, so they’ll all come together as one big bridge,” he said. “We’ll demolish the bridge deck, remove the structural steel and rehabilitate all existing piers and abutments and set new structural steel to connect it to the infill. Then, we will construct a new bridge deck on top of the new structural steel and when we’re finished all three portions will be connected as one integral bridge.”
When noted that the five-year time frame indicates the job will not be completed until
2025, Stevens said, “It’s a big job, but a portion had to be redesigned, which slowed us down by about eight or nine months, but we’re doing our best to get things back on track.”
H.B. Fleming of South Portland, Maine, was the contractor on the trestle work. Scotty Linscott is the owner of the company. “We built the trestle across the river that allows access to build the piers and set bridge girders,” he said.
Hub Foundation of Chelmsford, Mass., built and installed the micropiles.
“The pier rock was more sloped than they planned when they poured the concrete, so we installed micropiles through the footing,” said John McKinnon, Hub Foundation manager. “We drilled in the rock, so the footing
is supported by micropiles.”
R.S. Audley is using a Link-Belt TCC1400 140-ton crane on the project as well as a Grove RT60 65-ton rough-terrain crane and a Manitowoc YB5515 15-ton carrydeck crane.
Hub Foundation used a Davey Kent 525 diesel drill rig and a Penn 10-10 cement mixing plant.
Subcontractors on the project include Casco Bay Steel Structures, South Portland, Maine, as the steel supplier; Continental Paving, Londonderry, N.H., as the paving contractor; and Carroll Concrete, Newport, N.H., as the concrete supplier.
R.S. Audley also is self-performing the excavation and concrete forming and placement and steel erection work. It will shut
down near the end of January due to winter weather and will restart approximately March 1.
The new bridge will be 840-ft. long and 110-ft. wide, which is two acres of bridge, according to Stevens. He called it “a complicated job” that will require 3.5 million tons of structural steel, 500,000 lbs. of uncoated reinforcing steel and 600,000 lbs. of epoxy coasted reinforcing steel. It also will utilize 5,000 cu. yds. of concrete, which makes it “a significant bridge project for New Hampshire.” CEG
(All photos courtesy of NHDOT.)
As Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s time in office nears its conclusion on Jan. 5, one of his last official acts is in support of clean energy, a topic that has been a top priority for his administration.
Specifically, Baker announced $180 million in grants on Dec. 20 to the Offshore Wind Ports Challenge to buttress development of wind power in the state’s ocean waters, according to WCVB-TV in Boston.
Baker, along with Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and state Energy Secretary Bethany Card, unveiled the funding recipients inside the Technology Testing Center Large Blade Facility in Charlestown.
The Offshore Wind Ports Infrastructure Investment Challenge is a competitive funding opportunity that began earlier in 2022 to expand and develop port infrastructure at three key harbors along the Massachusetts coast: New Bedford, Somerset and Salem.
The grant money from the Baker administration will go to a variety of firms that are working on the infrastructure to make Massachusetts’ clean energy goals a reality.
Shoreline Marine Terminal, another company based in New Bedford, works to support infrastructure for commercial fishing, according to its owner, Michael Quinn, who explained that his firm is “trying to tie that into the offshore wind industry now, as well,
so we’ll have a commercial shipyard that will be supporting 90-ft.-long commercial fishing vessels, tugboats, and offshore crew transfer vessels.”
Jennifer Daloisio, CEO of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), a state economic development agency dedicated to growing its clean energy sector, told WCVB-TV that the $180 million in new funding is a critical investment in offshore wind ports infrastructure.
“These projects will each serve an important role in the offshore wind supply chain that will help prepare Massachusetts for a future powered by wind,” she said.
“Significantly, that future also brings high value jobs, a more inclusive workforce, a broader adoption of innovative clean energy solutions, and a growing future for this industry.”
The following is a list of the Offshore Wind Ports Challenge projects and the funding amounts announced by Baker’s office Dec. 21:
• Crowley Wind Services and the city of Salem are due to receive $75 million for the conversion of a former coal-fired power plant industrial property in the harbor town north of Boston into a world class purposebuilt offshore wind marshalling port. The work includes expanding the public-private
partnership with the state to ensure that the facility will be available to support Massachusetts’ offshore wind and climate goals, with MassCEC and Salem taking ownership of the site and leasing it back to Crowley to run the wind port.
• MassCEC’s New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal was granted $45 million for facility improvements to ensure it can accommodate the current and future offshore wind projects.
• Prysmian Projects North America will receive $25 million for the redevelopment of a portion of the Brayton Point Marine Commerce Center in Somerset to construct a manufacturing facility and terminal for
marine high voltage cables.
• The New Bedford Port Authority was awarded $15 million to improve its North Terminal 1 port facility, with bulkhead and terminal space, and the modernization of port-wide operations to efficiently manage increased vessel traffic.
• Another $15 million goes to New Bedford Foss Marine Terminal for the redevelopment of the former Sprague/Eversource power plant, transforming the legacy site into a modern offshore wind port supporting operations and construction activities, with new heavy-lift quayside, laydown space, and berthing for feeder barges and service operations.
• The Baker administration gave $4.6 million to Shoreline Marine Terminals for the build-out of terminals with new bulkheads, docking space, lift piers, fueling capacity, and other infrastructure which will support the day-to-day operations of offshore wind crew transfer and for vessel maintenance and repairs in the port of New Bedford.
• A total of $360,800 went to Gladding Hearn Shipbuilding for shipyard upgrades to enable the local facility in Somerset to fabricate and repair aluminum high-speed crew transfer vessels for Vineyard Wind, Mayflower Wind, and other offshore projects.
“These projects will each serve an important role in the offshore wind supply chain...”
Jennifer Daloisio Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
A new year is likely to be full of new developments for Peabody, Mass., including affordable housing projects, school safety updates and possibly a new public safety building.
The Massachusetts city lies northeast of Boston and shares a border with the town of Salem.
“Over the last couple of years, because of COVID, a lot of things have been put on hold,” Mayor Ted Bettencourt said in a recent interview with the Salem News. “In 2023, a lot of projects that we’ve been looking forward to are going to start to happen in the city, and we’re very excited about that.”
Bettencourt said his focus is on rebuilding Peabody’s Endicott Street Bridge and revamping Central Street, along with presenting a flood mitigation plan and new public safety building.
The latter structure would be built where the current police headquarters sits on Allens Lane and include full stations for both the police and fire departments, along with an emergency management facility that could open the city up to more grant opportunities, Bettencourt noted.
The city broke ground on the project last spring to update parts of the building in need of repair or upgrades. By this April, improvements to the school’s front entrance, lobby, front-facing classrooms and a new nurse’s office will be complete, allowing students to again use the school’s main entrance, said Superintendent Josh Vadala.
mer or fall and last for about a year.
He hopes to present the idea to the Peabody City Council in the next month or two, the News reported Jan. 8.
The city would still have to seek funding to hire a company to design a new facility, meaning there is not yet a price tag attached to the project, Bettencourt noted, but he is hopeful that work can get started in 2023.
“This is a project that I think is needed and will really set us up nicely in terms of public safety for decades to come,” he added.
The city also will start renovating the Central Street corridor from Wilson Square down to Peabody Square, according to the Salem news outlet. The project has already received $12 million in funding from state and federal grants to resurface the road and sidewalks, upgrade crosswalks and traffic signals, and add modern landscape and design amenities to the area, Bettencourt said.
“It’s going to be a transformational project for that area, making it safer, making it more accessible, improving traffic flow, and I think it’s going to improve the lives of tens of thousands of our residents in the city,” he explained.
Peabody has already spent about $1 million on the project’s design phase, which Bettencourt called a “minimal” contribution in the overall scheme.
He expects construction to start this sum-
In addition, a rebuild of the Endicott Street Bridge is slated to commence this spring or summer, Bettencourt said. The $1.2 million project received a $600,000 state grant last year and will take six months to complete, he noted.
Bettencourt also looks forward to a flood mitigation project beginning this year that would help reduce flooding, particularly in Peabody’s Ward 3.
It would follow the recent construction of upstream retention ponds to collect stormwater that threatened to spill into Peabody Square, Bettencourt told the Salem News, adding that the city would create another of these ponds in the Lawrence Brook watershed, which stretches from Margin Street at the Salem border down to Walnut Street at the North River.
The City of Peabody spent much of 2022 wading through affordable housing proposals, according to its mayor. While a 45-unit development at the Mills 58 Marketplace on Pulaski Street was approved in November, there are still about four such projects before the city. They include proposed developments off U.S. Highway 1, Wallis Street and Oak Street.
Almost 11 percent of the city’s housing stock is considered to be affordable, meaning those units are reserved for households
with incomes at or below 80 percent of the area’s median income, said Curt Bellavance, the city’s community development director. That is about 191 units over the state-mandated 10 percent mark communities must meet.
But Bellavance told the News that approximately 96 units are expected to be shaved off that number this year since an affordable housing project approved for King Street failed to file building permits in a timely fashion. That also is likely to happen for a similar project on Endicott Street, which has until the end of January to file those permits, he said.
The city also received a grant through Mass Housing Partnership to work with a consultant to assess what steps Peabody should take following new multifamily zoning requirements for MBTA communities, according to Bellavance.
Another construction project happening in the city this year is for a renovation to Welch Elementary School.
The city broke ground on the project last spring to update parts of the building in need of repair or upgrades. By this April, improvements to the school’s front entrance, lobby, front-facing classrooms and a new nurse’s office will be complete, allowing students to again use the school’s main entrance, said Superintendent Josh Vadala.
The rehab will continue in the back of the school and its gym, and will last through the following school year, Vadala told the Salem news source. He expects the project to wrap up by the start of the 20242025 school year.
Additionally, West Memorial Elementary School will get a new roof this summer, and the city is planning to tear down the old Kiley Brothers Memorial School that has been empty on Johnson Street since the district moved its central offices from it several years ago. Vadala expects the demolition to take place in the coming months, noting that while there is not a plan for the site’s future use right now, it is in the works.
“[The old school is] not in use, it is not really safe, so taking it down is great,” he said. “By having that property, we’ll be able to plan some … good use for the city and for the school district.”
The Peabody Public School district also is working with a city-led task force and the state of Massachusetts to keep students safer following several incidents where children were struck by cars near schools in 2022.
The task force will determine what sidewalk or road improvements are suitable for areas near each school. A reduction in the number of sidewalks near the Brown School has already been made to funnel students to crosswalks in better monitored and safer points on roadways near the school, Vadala said.
Peabody Municipal Light Plant (PLMP) will add six new electric vehicle charging stations around the city. Two will be in the Mill Street parking lot downtown, another two will be on Railroad Avenue, and the last two will go in a lot across the street from Petrillo’s Italian Kitchen on Foster Street, said PMLP General Manager Joseph Anastasi.
The plant is looking to buy a new battery that will help reduce electricity costs during peak energy use times, he explained. The battery can be charged when electricity is cheap and dispense it to customers when it is most costly, saving ratepayers money, Anastasi added.
Construction on a new 55-megawatt “peaker” power plant should wrap up this year at PMLP’s Pulaski Street substation in Peabody. The $85 million facility would be powered by oil and natural gas. It is known as a peaker plant because it only runs during peak times of energy use.
A ceremonial groundbreaking led by outgoing Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and other state and local leaders officially kicked off in late December on the much-anticipated $135 million Massachusetts Route 79 and Davol Street Corridor Improvement project at Fall River’s City Pier.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) building effort will transform the Route 79 corridor from Central Street, near Battleship Cove, to the Veterans Memorial Bridge by demolishing the four-lane elevated portion of the waterfront highway and creating an urban boulevard in Fall River.
“There are actually two goals to the project,” said Lenny Velichansky, vice president and project manager of TranSystems, a Missouri-based engineering and design consulting firm with an office in Boston. “One is to create land for economic development, and the other is to reconnect the neighborhoods to the waterfront.”
In fact, when the project is complete, likely at the end of 2026, there will be up to 19 acres of land available for commercial redevelopment and green space, he told the Fall River Herald News, adding it also will open multimodal connections on the highway corridor, like sidewalks, pedestrian crossings and bike paths.
Preliminary design of the Route 79 project is complete, and Velichansky said the design/build phase is moving forward.
D. W. White Construction in Acushnet, Mass., was chosen by MassDOT as the lead builder of the project, along with Salisbury’s SPS New England.
Former Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration was credited by the local delegation and Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan for having delivered both the Route 79 project and the nearby South Coast Rail project to the city and the state’s South Coast.
Polito also recognized the local state delegation, the city administration, and the Bristol County Economic Development Consultants (BCEDC) for keeping the Baker administration on track with seeing the two projects become realities.
She called the project “truly transformational” for Fall River to connect Route 79 and Davol Street to the city and the whole waterfront to Battleship Cove and the Braga Bridge.
“Today is a bellwether day for Fall River,” said an emotional Rep. Carole Fiola, D-Sixth Bristol District. “This groundbreaking signifies decades of work by dozens of people throughout the last 20-plus years.”
Added BCEDC President Frank Marchione, “It’s a big deal. I’m very happy and it’s come to fruition just like the train [project].”
Later, Marchione and BCEDC Vice President Ken Fiola discussed the years the project was in the making, starting with a study sponsored by the economic development agency back in 1999 on the revitalization of the city’s waterfront.
“When we first came out with all of the recommendations, the consultants said it was going to take us 20 years to implement these things, and I laughed and said, ‘We can get it done in five years, 10 tops,’” Fiola told the News Herald. “And here we are 20 years later. It was a process [to secure]
Two large housing complexes are already being constructed on Washington Avenue in the town of North Haven, Conn., which also became home to several new businesses in 2022.
But First Selectman Mike Freda, who has long prioritized economic development in the community northeast of New Haven, has even more ambitious goals for the neighborhood in 2023.
He told the New Haven Register that residents can expect development at several Washington Avenue locations this year.
The sites Freda is eyeing include properties adjacent to the entrance to North Haven’s Amazon campus and a 4-acre lot across from the town’s fairgrounds.
MassDOT rendering MassDOT is redesigning the mile long corridor along and across Route 79 and Davol Street to improve mobility, connectivity and safety.
money and things you didn’t anticipate. But we stayed the course and were persistent.”
Multimodal Urban Boulevard
MassDOT is redesigning the one-mi.-long corridor along and across Route 79 and Davol Street to improve mobility, connectivity and safety. As a multimodal urban boulevard, the corridor will connect Fall River’s neighborhoods to the Taunton River while promoting economic growth by creating new development parcels to contribute to economic development.
According MassDOT’s project page online, the existing Route 79 is being moved onto the current alignments of northbound and southbound Davol Street. The work also includes the design and construction of local roadway connections to the corridor, including Brightman Street, President Avenue, Hathaway Street and Turner Street.
In addition, a network of shared use paths and sidewalks, and new traffic signals, will be designed and built, the state agency noted. Crews are slated to install a new bridge structure and retaining walls, as well as a new drainage system, MassDOT noted.
Mark Twain once said, “Buy land, they aren’t making it anymore.”
With that in mind, MassDOT has designed a Route 79 plan that will open about 19 acres of developable land that has not existed since the construction of the highway.
But it is apparently still too early to know how and by whom the land will be developed, the Fall River news source noted.
The Herald News reported Massachusetts State Sen. Michael Rodrigues, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, made it clear that the acreage to come from the massive project is owned by the state.
“So, they will have to go through a process to dispose [of] public property,” he explained. “It will be a public bidding process and will have to come through the Legislature because we take land transfers very seriously.”
Regarding the city’s input on how the land will be developed, Rodrigues told the local news outlet that the Fall River Redevelopment Authority will certainly bid on the land.
“We will make sure the Commonwealth gets full and fair market value for the property to protect the taxpayers,” he added.
“On the south side and the north side of the Amazon driveway, leading into [the complex], I am currently working on two projects there that will materialize sometime in the middle of 2023,” he said.
Freda added that he had promised confidentiality to those involved and was unable to share details about most of the developments, but he did tell the Register that North Haven residents might expect one new retail plaza.
“On the northside [of the Amazon driveway], we will be looking for a retail plaza there, with stores and perhaps a restaurant,” he explained. “On the south side, you know, there’s a variety of different opportunities that I can’t really share.”
Several building projects are already under way in the area, the New Haven news source reported Jan. 2.
Connex Credit Union, which currently has a location at 412 Washington Ave., is building a new headquarters on an adjacent lot, while on a property behind the future office building, a total of 88 apartments are under construction, Freda said.
Just across the street, another new apartment complex also is in the works that will feature 225 units among three buildings, one of which is designed to be a mixed-use structure that could feature stores or restaurants.
Twenty percent of the apartments will meet Connecticut affordability requirements, he noted.
The Register reported that in addition to the housing developments, several new businesses opened on Washington Avenue in 2022.
Island Cho, which serves Trinidadian and Jamaican dishes, brought a taste of the Caribbean to North Haven last summer, while the Five Guys burger-and-fries chain recently opened its doors to customers in the plaza at 146 Washington Ave. Among the more unusual developments along the North Haven corridor include Xperiment VR, a virtual reality gaming arcade that opened in the Stop & Shop Plaza.
Regardless of Washington Avenue’s recent successes, though, Freda said he is not yet satisfied.
“I am fully and totally driven to do better and get more done,” he told the New Haven news site.
In addition to pursuing new developments, Freda wants to see vacant business spaces occupied.
“[At] the south end of the Stop & Shop Plaza, there’s roughly 80,000 sq. ft. of vacancy,” he explained. “We’re trying to figure out a solution for that.”
The now vacant space at 270 Washington Ave. was once home, at separate times, to both a Donato’s and a Howard Johnson’s restaurant, but Freda is aiming to get a business to move in there.
Other locations he hopes to fill include the neighboring sites at 575 Washington, once home to a produce store, and 585 Washington, a former café.
