It’ll be a busy summer on Worthington’s State Roads, and work is just beginning. The Department of Transportation has set-up shop in an upstairs office space at the Fire/Police Station that we’ve rented to them. The work on Route 143 is being done by the same contractor, Morais Concrete Service Inc., who did the work on the first phase of the project.
Phase II is planned to last for 4 years. This summer is mostly about preparation work along the sides and right-of-way to allow for road widening. The work, like the first phase, is a full-depth reconstruction. That means they’ll take the road right down to the dirt foundation to essentially rebuild it. There is also a lot of drainage work to do, as there are 14 stream crossings alone on that stretch of road! The most significant of that work will be in the area of Reinke Auto Repair close to the Peru line, where a large culvert will be replaced.
Concrete retaining walls will be poured along large stretches of the road to support the new width of the road. We should expect there to be lane closures throughout the summer as they do this work, as well as the installation of temporary stop lights to regulate traffic in different locations as the work progresses.
The good news is that Morais, the highway contractor, will be filling the existing potholes on the road as soon as they can get to it this spring!
While they don’t expect to do any actual paving this summer on Route 143, the state will be resurfacing Route 112 (Huntington Rd) from the roundabout to the Huntington town line this summer. That is a much less extensive repair, but it’ll still result in additional traffic disruption as it proceeds. The pavement will be ground down and resurfaced, but the footprint of the road shouldn’t be changing. We have been told, however, that there may be a new sidewalk constructed in the area around the school and Town Hall. We don’t have the details on that yet, so stay tuned.
The town is much more involved in the 143 project. We paid for all the engineering and have spent close to $1.5 million on that over the last 10 years or so, most of which came from our yearly state allocations through the Chapter 90 state aid program. We expect to get a more detailed timeline of the work soon from the Department of Transportation, which is managing the project.
While the Worthington Highway Department is certainly in the loop on the project, they really aren’t the ones managing it. Our Police Department is certainly in the loop as well, particularly in the scheduling of Police details for both projects.
There is some blasting planned for some of the rock outcroppings over toward the Peru line. We don’t have a timeline for that, but our Fire Department will be keyed into that as well.
In addition to all that, there is a lot of pole work being done this summer. Eversource is upgrading and, in some cases, moving poles for the highway project as well as for upgraded infrastructure to allow for new higher-capacity lines.
All this work will be of great benefit to the town, but it will take a long while to be completed. We know that the tree cutting along the roadways can be jarring, but it’s necessary work for straightening and widening 143 and to improve the reliability of the utility lines. The undergrowth will come back and green up in a relatively short period of time. So please be patient. It’s a good time to practice your Zen… travel will be disrupted for all of us as we work our way through this. Please bring any concerns at any point to the Selectboard’s attention. We can all be reached at sboard@worthington-ma.us and at the Town Offices, 238-5577 ext. 100.
Thanks, Charley, for this information