-BROOKFIELD-
By Jennifer Grybowski
Turley Publications Reporter
jgrybowski@turley.com
Summer is finally here and the local Highway Department is taking advantage of the nicer weather to do some road work in town.
The town was awarded $500,000 MassWorks Small Town Rural Assistance Program (STRAP) grant last October, to help reconstruct portions of Town Farm, Gay and Rice Corner roads. According to state documents, roadway upgrades will address certain public safety issues by improving several limited sight areas and through the installation of drainage facilities to mitigate frequent flooding. The total project cost is estimated at $625,000, with the town of Brookfield providing the remaining funding and in-kind services.
The Highway Department began work recently on Town Farm Road, from about house number 44 south to the end of the road. According to Highway Superintendent Herb Chaffee, his crew is working on draining and cleaning excess debris on the edge of the road and hauling it away.
“This is a road that has had issues,” Chaffee said. “It is starting to fall apart. It’s been quite a few years since it’s been paved.”
Chaffee said the crew is also working on installing adequate drainage. He said the storm water used to run naturally off the road, but new homes being built have disrupted that flow.
“It creates issues on the public way,” he said.
Chaffee said he hopes the work on Town Farm Rd. will be done by the end of June or early July.
“We have a few more weeks of drainage edging and sweeping work to get ready for reclaiming and paving,” he said.
Crews will then move on to the second part of the project: Parts of Rice Corner and Gay roads.
The work on Rice Corner Rd. will begin at the stop sign near Rice Corner Cross Cut and extend to the Sturbridge line. Pulverizing, reclaiming, regarding and repaving will be done to about 5,000 feet of roadway from Rice Corner Cross Cut to the farm at the sharp corner of the road, past Gay Rd. The rest of the road will be repaved, as drainage work was performed there recently.
The work on Gay Rd. will include reclaiming, regarding and repaving of the first 400 feet of the road.
Chaffee said the drainage work is mainly done in-house by his two and a half man crew. He did have to hire a contractor to do some digging on Town Farm Rd. and has contracted the actual paving portions of the projects out as well.
Chaffee said he is hoping the entire project will be finished by the middle to end of July.
CSX bridge repairs
Residents who travel over the CSX bridge on Route 148 regularly will be relieve to hear that they will be inconvenienced for only a few more weeks.
Michael Verseckes, Mass DOT spokesperson, said crews are currently half way through Phase II of the project. Phase I was the actual raising of the bridge 18 inches, in order to allow some of CSX’s taller trains to pass through. That phase was completed in December. Phase II consists of side work: Installing a sidewalk on one side, installing concrete beams on both sides and adjusting approach roads on both sides. According to E.T.& L. Corp. (the contractor doing the work) Project Manager/Estimator Richard Masucci work should be complete by the second week in July. When the project is complete, the traffic signal that looms above the bridge will be removed.
