The redesign is intended to improve safety and traffic flow with the use of two roundabouts.
Baltazar crews work on a culvert on the south end of the $6 million Atkins Road project on Route 116 while flagger Paul Dias holds back traffic. AMHERST – The Atkins corner road project took more than a decade of preparation, but now that work has actually begun, it’s moving ahead of schedule.
There were some paperwork issues in the beginning, said Paul Baltazar, owner of Ludlow-based Baltazar Contractors Inc., which was awarded the contract for the $6 million project in January. But he said now “We got ahead of the game.”
The redesign is intended to improve safety and traffic flow with the use of roundabouts at West Street and West Bay Road, and at West Street and Bay Road. The road will be slightly wider. The design also includes a multi-use bicycle lane.
Work began in March and by the time they shut down for the winter around Thanksgiving, they expect to be about 70 percent complete, said project supervisor Ian Premo.
Premo said they expect the bulk of the work will be finished in August of 2012, with a punch list and details to be finished after that. Baltazar said once they get in, they like to move quickly. The targeted completion date is June 2013, according, Michael Verseckes, spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
Most of the work has been done on the first roundabout and the second is expected to be laid in September, Premo said. Motorists are still using the existing Route 116 and so far, there have been intermittent traffic delays, Balatazar said. But beginning Aug. 1, motorists should expect delays and take alternative routes if they can. They will begin the excavation of Route 116 near Country Corners Road and only one lane of the road will be open to traffic.
Baltazar said they’ve been able to move quickly because of “the cooperation of Atkins” along with the state highway department Hampshire College and the community. He said crews don’t mind the heat. “The hotter the better,” he said.
The town in 2010 laid new sewer and water lines beneath what will be the new Route 116, removed a storage shed and three other buildings as well as apple trees in preparation for the work.
The project is funded with $2.4 million in stimulus money and approximately $5 million from other federal and state sources.
Pauline A. Lannon, president of Atkins Farms, said recently that the effect of the project on their business as been minimal. Atkins is building a new storage facility to replace the one razed for the project.
Residents, town and Hampshire College officials had been working on creating a village center here since 1998, which included the road improvements. The project required hundreds and hundreds of hours of meetings, design, town meeting votes as well as landtakings from Hampshire College, Atkins among others.
The Cecil Group, meanwhile, hired to look at creating a North Amherst Village Center along with an updated South Amherst Village Center project will be presenting the latest concept on the Atkins Corner piece Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Bangs Community Center.