Construction Resumes on Main Street This Week

No significant traffic delays are anticipated and the mayor is predicting the entire project will be complete by June 30.

Construction picked up again this week on Main Street after a four-month hiatus due to the winter weather. Work crews are busy along the eastbound side of the street, working from Washington Street down to Peabody Square, tearing up curbing and sidewalks that will be replaced with wider walkways that are ADA compliant, brick pavers, "bumpouts" at crosswalks and other streetscape improvements. The crosswalks will also have brick pavers and improved signage. Once substantial headway is made on that section, work will then begin from Howley Street down to Washington. And once the sidewalks are complete -- the other side of the street was done last year -- work will focus on reconfiguring the travel lanes, upgrading and synchronizing the …

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Main Street Construction to Resume in Spring

Planting trees, redoing sidewalks on the other side of the street and the actual lane reconfiguration on Main Street will have to wait until springtime.

City officials say construction on Main Street has wrapped up for the season, so theoretically the commute through the downtown should be a little easier now. Community Development Director Karen Sawyer said on Tuesday that due to the colder weather setting in, the project will pause for the winter and resume again in the spring. Sawyer said the project has reached the point where it was expected to be at given the seasonal weather. So far, workers have torn up and replaced the sidewalk on the northerly side of the street all the way down to CVS, generally widening it and installing brick pavers, along with "bump outs" near crosswalks. Orange barrels dot the length of the street, covering patches of dirt where new trees will be planted. …

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Letter to the Editor

LETTER: 'Main Street Corridor Project Will Benefit Peabody and Its Residents'

Peabody native and downtown business owner Tony Vargas says the end product for Main Street will only help his and other shops downtown and benefit residents as well.

I’m writing to express my support of Peabody’s Main Street Corridor project, which I believe will benefit the city of Peabody and its residents. Having substantially benefited from being a life-long resident of Peabody, I am committed to our city -- giving back to our community and investing in it. As part of that commitment, I give back to our city through my volunteer work with the high school’s vocational technical cosmetology program – a program from which I was the first male to graduate, and to which I owe my gratitude for providing my career training and livelihood. I’ve also honored my commitment to our community by choosing Peabody as the place to school my children and raise my family, and as a homeowner, to invest my real estate…

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2:49 pm on Friday, September 28, 2012

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What's Happening With Construction on Main Street?

We're glad you asked.

If you've wondering why construction on Main Street has appeared to be rather sporadic these past two weeks, it's because the bulk of the work hasn't actually started yet. Before the sidewalks can be redone and new curbing, bump-outs and aesthetic improvements are installed, there is some utility work that needs to be taken care of. "The primary focus for the weeks of Aug. 20 and 27 are completing all necessary street crossings before the start of school. This work includes the relocation of catch basins, drainage lines and electrical conduits," said Community Development Director Karen Sawyer Wednesday afternoon. School starts in Peabody Sept. 4 and Salem State University students head back to class Sept. 5. On Wednesday, with a police …

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Green Light for Main Street, Construction Begins Monday

Construction will start with the sidewalks on either side of the street and then tackle the lane reductions.

It's been six years in the making and it all starts Monday for Main Street. Mayor Ted Bettencourt announced this week that he has given the green light for construction to begin Aug. 13 on what will be a major realignment of Main Street. The project aims to increase safety for pedestrians and motorists, improve traffic flow, beautify the busy thoroughfare and in turn encourage commerce downtown. The most dramatic change that will occur is reducing the four travel lanes back down to two with a center turning lane from Washington Street intersection down to Howley Street. Proponents of the improvement plan generally argue that won't have a negative affect on traffic while skeptics are just that, strongly arguing that traffic will spill over …

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Main Street Still on Track for 2012 Finish

Project to overhaul roadway initially delayed because of higher price tag coming back on construction bids.

Mayor Ted Bettencourt says the overhaul of Main Street is still on track to be finished by the end of the year. Bettencourt said bids went out on the project in April, but came back higher than expected. The low bidder was AR Belli, Inc. out of Newton for $1.9 million, but the city had only allocated $1.5 million for construction, using a grant from MassWorks. Bettencourt appeared before the Community Development Authority on Thursday to ask for a $500,000 loan to fill that gap plus a little cushion and was unanimously approved on the request. City officials had hoped to break ground on Main Street in May, but despite the two-month setback, Bettencourt is still hopeful the work will start this summer and be completed in 2012. The City …

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UPDATE: Peabody 'Ready to Roll' on Main Street Project

State public infrastructure grant will pay $1.5 million to redesign Main Street.

Gov. Deval Patrick announced yesterday that the state will be picking up the tab on the Main Street Corridor project, no doubt welcome relief to local officials in Peabody. The infrastructure upgrade to redesign the main thoroughfare to Salem is slated to cost $1.5 million and will be completely covered by a grant from MassWorks, according to city officials. "It's good [news], we're psyched," said Community Development Director Karen Sawyer this morning. "We're ready to roll." With the City Council signing off on the project in September, the only hurdle that remained was whether the funds being eyed would come through. If so, construction could begin in March, otherwise it would be further delayed in order to find another funding source. …

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Council OKs Final Design for Main St; All Eyes Now on State Grant

With the City Council finally approving the final design for the Main Street Corridor, it remains to be seen whether the state will pick up the tab with a $1.5 million grant.

Five years later, Main Street is finally on its way to being reconfigured back to two lanes in either direction, at least for most of the mile-long stretch through Peabody’s downtown. A center turning lane would be created along Main Street from Washington Street down to Howley Street. The City Council voted, 9-2, Thursday night to approve the final design plan by consultants Green International and pave the way for the next phase of the project, provided the state approves a $1.5 million grant. City officials said that even if the grant does fall through, the city might look to funding from the Community Development Authority or bonding for it. Community Development Director Karen Sawyer said the city wouldn’t have a clear grasp on those …

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Fatal Shows Dire Need to Make Main Street Safer

City councilors will be reviewing the final plan design to overhaul Main Street this evening. This morning's fatal accident will likely feature prominently in that discussion.

This morning’s fatal accident downtown, which resulted in the death of a female pedestrian, only points to the urgent need for greater safety along Main Street, says at least one elected official. City councilor Ted Bettencourt, whose Main Street law office is just over a block away from the intersection with Washington Street, said he was arriving to work around 8:30 a.m. (after a morning of holding signs for his mayoral campaign) and noticed the police officers and flashing lights in the intersection. It wasn’t until he checked a local news report that he discovered what had happened. Bettencourt said these types of tragic accidents are exactly what the city is trying to prevent by redesigning Main Street. “One of the major reasons for …

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Fitzgerald Urges City Council to OK Final Main Street Plan

The City Council is set to receive the final plan design for the Main Street Corridor on Thursday night and mayoral candidate Sean Fitzgerald is urging councilors to sign off on that plan to get the important project moving.

[The following press release was submitted to Peabody Patch by the Committee to Elect Sean Fitzgerald.] This week [Thursday], the Peabody City Council will have before it a request for approval of the final design of the Main Street Corridor Realignment Project. Quoted by local media after a Sept. 12 public meeting on the plan, Sean Fitzgerald stated: “This is exciting. We're talking about making a huge investment in reconfiguring our traffic, and I think it will make for a better downtown. This is a must-do for us. We can't turn away from this.” Fitzgerald has been an ongoing supporter of comprehensive efforts to improve Peabody’s downtown explaining: “Mayor Michael Bonfanti’s administration has been working the tough issues of zoning and…

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