pWATERTOWN — The $11.9 million reconstruction of Factory Street won’t be completely finished until the spring of 2017./ppExpecting nearly all of the work to get done this construction season, City Engineer Justin L. Wood said he still hopes the general contractor will only have to return next year to put down a top layer of asphalt on the busy city street and finish a punch list of items./ppPlans had called for completing the project this fall, but the general contractor for the road redo, CCI Companies, got a late start on it. Instead of last March or April, work finally got off the ground in August./ppThe subject came up at Thursday’s Citizen Advisory Board meeting at City Hall./pp“Am I going to have a smooth road by November?” asked board member Donald W. Rutherford, whose Watertown Local Development Corp. office is in proximity of the major road project./pp“You’re going to have a smooth road by November,” Mr. Wood promised./ppThe project includes a half-mile section of Factory Street, from Mill Street to Huntington Street. /ppIf all goes well from here, the goal is to complete replacing the sidewalks, and curbing and finishing the asphalt base lining this fall. The remainder of the work would be done next construction season./ppCCI continues to work on several fronts, while National Grid replaces an electric duct near the Mill Street Bridge. That work needs to be finished so some other aspects of the road work can be completed, Mr. Wood said./ppWork crews also continue replacing some 120-year-old storm water main and sewer work. /ppCalling it “a fluid situation,” Mr. Wood said CCI work crews have found more rock that they’ve had to excavate all along the half-mile construction site. But the delay in getting the project done this fall is “mostly” caused by last year’s late start when CCI had to submit some additional information to the state Department of Transportation about its minority and women hiring practices./ppPeter W. Schmitt, another board member, wanted to know if the city was making sure that business owners along the route are kept abreast of the project’s progress./ppThey are notified by emails and his office has met one-on-one with some business owners when they had questions, Mr. Wood said./pp“I think we’ve taken the extra step,” he said./ppThe group of community and business leaders learned on Thursday that the project also includes about 100 trees and shrubs dotting the half-mile stretch, a median between Huntington and High streets and rapid yellow flash warning lights at pedestrian crosswalks./p
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