Water and sewer improvement project resumes in the area of Putnam Street

Public Works Director Dave Hickey said this week that the water/sewer infrastructure improvements project for Putnam Street, Putnam Place, Jefferson Street and Fremont Street resumed last week and is on scheduled to be completed by the end of June.

“We were scheduled to resume that project during the last week in March, but because of all the rain we got in March, it was too wet and we started up again last week instead, said Hickey. “Right now the schedule calls for us to finish hooking up the new sewer services in Putnam Street and Putnam place during the month of April and maybe a little bit into May and then we can start the water project for Jefferson and Fremont streets.”

Hickey added that scheduled work to replace the water mains and drainage systems on Jefferson and Fremont streets and tie in new services to residents there should take most of May and into June, but by the need of June all four streets should be closed up with new road surfaces.

“In June we are expecting to complete surface treatments for all four streets, so that folks will be driving on nice smooth pavement, we won’t be able to put the finish pavement on until 90 days after we finish the surface treatments, but at least the water/sewer projects will be completed and the streets will be smooth again,” he noted.

Depending on when the four streets are actually completed the final topcoat of pavement is likely to be applied sometime in late September or early October.

The $1 million water/sewer/drainage and roadway project is being funded through a variety of state and federal grants and bonding programs available through the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. According to Hickey, the bonded portions of the funding are all for below market rate bonds to be repaid in five to ten years depending on the portions of the project.