Blackstone’s Main Street ready for repaving work
BLACKSTONE — Asphalt milling on Main Street has been completed and state road crews are now constructing curb ramp slopes for the handicapped at all crosswalks in anticipation of the complete repaving of Route 122 from the Uxbridge town line all the way to the Woonsocket state line.
Blackstone Highway Superintendent Jimmy Sullivan says now that the asphalt milling – or grinding off of the asphalt surface – is done, state Department of Transportation crews will begin paving on Sunday in Uxbridge and then make their way into Blackstone in two weeks.
The Blackstone part of the project, pegged at $800,000, is expected to wrap up in time for the Memorial Day weekend, Sullivan said.
It’s been nearly 30 years since Main Street (Route 122), a stateowned road, was reconstructed and paved. Blackstone town officials have been waiting the better part of three years to get on the state Department of Transportation’s short list for project funding, but the
project kept getting delayed.
In January of 2016, the town took its case to the State House when Town Administrator Daniel Keyes and Selectmen Robert J. Dubois and Daniel Keefe joined state Sen. Ryan Fattman (R-Webster) for a one-on-one meeting with MassDOT Legislative Liaison Donny Dailey to discuss the town’s needs. Following that meeting, the town submitted a formal application package with the state.
Fattman and Rep. Kevin J. Kuros (R-Uxbridge) also sent a joint letter to Department of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack asking her to support a proposed $1.8 million road improvement project in Blackstone, which would include new sidewalks and curbing and repaving and re-striping of the entire mileand-a-half section of Main Street between Woonsocket and Millville.
The town heard nothing back until a couple of weeks ago, when it was notified that the state project would begin.
Fattman brought even more good news to the town last month, saying Blackstone is in line to get nearly a quarter million dollars in state Chapter 90 money to repair its roads this summer. Chapter 90 funds are determined by a formula based on a city or town’s total population, miles of road, and population statistics. Based on that formula, Blackstone, which has 41 miles of roadway and a population of 9,026, is slated to receive $234,650 this year.
Last month, the state Senate passed a three-year, $600 million investment of “Chapter 90” funding for local road and bridge repairs. The legislation passed authorizes $200 million each year for the next three years for infrastructure
improvements in municipalities across the Commonwealth.
The funds are paid out as reimbursements to communities for qualifying infrastructure work. The funding may be used on a variety of municipal roadway projects, including mending potholes, cracking, and other surface defects and repair or replace signage, guardrail, storm grates, or road striping or painting.
In addition to that, the town is also receiving an additional $200,000 to repair the ailing Lincoln Street Bridge, which is now restricted to one lane in each direction. The historic bridge, located between the Blackstone-Millville Regional High School and the John F. Kennedy Elementary/Augustine F. Maloney School complex, spans the Fox Brook. It was closed three weeks ago so highway workers could repair and fill a large hole on one side of the bridge, which has been slowly deteriorating for the past 25 years.
The town has also been awarded more than $198,000 through the Municipal Small Bridge Program for the reconstruction and preservation of the historic stone arch bridge on Elm Street. Blackstone was one of 12 cities and towns selected as part of the second round of funding for the state program, which helps cities and towns replace or preserve bridges with spans between 10 and 20 feet that are not eligible for federal funding. In total, the town will receive $198,500.
The $50 million small bridge program provides reimbursable assistance to municipalities of up to 100 percent of the total design and construction cost of eligible projects.
The bridge work will start this spring.