Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Managing Editor SPRINGFIELD Residents of Salem and Eliot Streets expressed concern last week about a paving project on those two streets, but a city official said that the new paving would not contribute to the street's problems. Ken Askew of Eliot Street and Cicily Corbett of Salem Street met with the press on Wednesday to discuss the paving project, which will be completed within seven to 10 days. Corbett, who is co-chair of the Armory Quadrangle Civic Association, said the lack of communication about the project is one of a group of problems the neighborhood is facing. Salem Street is a one-way thoroughfare off of Spring Street that becomes Eliot Street. Corbett said that the city's department of Public Works parked heavy machinery in her driveway without permission and did not notify the residents that the paving project was planned. Askew said that the city's Department of Public Works (DPW) has raised the manholes on the street and several of the storm drains. He maintained that raising the drains will cover over the original storm drains cut into the granite curbing and will impede the flow of water into the drains. Both Askew and Corbett said they are afraid that the new paving will eliminate the current height of the curb and in some cases, because the curbing has sunk, will go over the curb. Although part of the neighborhood is in a historic district, the city's Historic Commission does not have any jurisdiction over the streets, Askew said. Jim Roberts, an engineer in the DPW, explained to Reminder Publications that the Department planned to apply a "simple one and a half inch overlay" on the street and the new layer should not affect the removal of water. "We're not going to do anything to change the capacity of the storm drains," Roberts said. He added that it was not the Department's "intention to bury the curb." Roberts said that the Department's Pavement Condition Index computer program rates all of the city's streets and produces a list of streets that need repaving. The Department then renovates as many streets on the list as budget allows. Salem Street was chosen in this manner. There is no money in the budget for the repair or replacement of granite curbing, he said. He said that granite is too expensive for the city to use and it hasn't installed granite curbing in the past 20 years. "The reveal [height] of the curbing is not going to change the historic significance of the neighborhood," Roberts said. Both Corbett and Askew believe that a master plan for the neighborhood needs to be developed in order to address issues such as crime, lighting and the maintenance of parks. |
