Memorial Drive repaving project should start sometime this fiscal year

Date: 7/21/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



CHICOPEE -- Memorial Drive will become a smoother ride sometime during the present fiscal year, while down

Mayor Michael Bissonnette recently announced that Memorial Drive will be repaved and the railroad tracks at the Westover Road rotary will be removed as part of the project.

District Highway Director Albert Stegemann of the Executive Office of Transportation wrote Bissonnette on July 7 that while the removal of the tracks will be part of the project, the repaving of Westover Road and James Street will not be part of the re-surfaced as Bissonnette had requested. The additional repaving was denied because of "funding restraints," Stegemann wrote.

Stegemann wrote the resurfacing of Memorial Drive would begin at the Deady Bridge and go to the intersection of Hollywood Street.

Bissonnette said the funding source was not initially determined -- whether it will be state funds or federal stimulus fund. The bid will go sometime in August or September, he added.

In Bissonnette's assessment Memorial Drive is "the hottest retail corridor in Western Massachusetts," and this repaving will help assist in the further development of the roadway. He noted that parcels on Memorial Drive available for development include the site of the former Casey Chevrolet and the 50-acres owned by St. Stanislaus Basilica. The Chicopee Crossing project near the entrance of the Massachusetts Turnpike would also benefit from the repaving, he added.



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Bissonnette had scheduled a meeting for 10 a.m., July 22 with business owners in the downtown area to discuss the up-coming road repairs in that neighborhood.

Center Street will have a full-depth reconstruction from the Springfield line to Hampden and West Streets and repaving from the intersection of Hampden and School Streets to the corners of Springfield and Front Streets.

Cabot Street will be "cold planed," a process in which the street is re-surfaced and bumps ruts are removed. The entire length of Cabot Street will be getting a makeover as well as the intersection of Cabot and Exchange Streets and Center and Exchange Streets.

Residents and merchants who have questions about the construction work should call the mayor's office at 594-1500.