ATHOL – Last week, Gov. Maura Healey signed a $375 million spending package for bridge and road maintenance, and Athol officials are hoping to see enough funds for several projects.

The bill was created by a House-Senate conference committee before final passage by the full Legislature.

“This Chapter 90 bill will deliver funds straight to municipalities to support projects that we know are critical to their economic development, including bridge and road maintenance, public transit, electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, and pedestrian, cyclist, and car safety,” according to a statement from the governor’s office.

The funding includes $200 million for Chapter 90, which reimburses cities and towns for repairs to roads and bridges—construction, reconstruction and maintenance. The bill also sets aside $25 million for mileage-based road repair.

Road repairs

Public Works Director Dick Kilhart said he expects Athol’s share of Chapter 90 funding in fiscal year 2024 to be near the same it has been in recent years.

“Athol will get approximately the same assessment that we got last year—it’s like $505,000 and change, based upon the state’s formula,” he said.

Kilhart said he has reached out to state Sen. Jo Comerford and the state Department of Transportation in hopes of securing an allotment of the $25 million set aside for construction, reconstruction and maintenance of surface conditions for non-federally-funded roadways. In Athol’s case, that pertains to state highways that runs through municipalities that the state doesn’t technically maintain.

“So, for instance, Route 2A runs through downtown Athol, and we have asked for a couple of years to get that on some sort of a funding list,” said Kilhart. “We’ve asked to be included, and just recently got a notification back from DOT that Athol – even though the section we are talking about, Main Street in Athol, is considered to be in poor condition – we are not on that particular list for this particular session. That’s a little disappointing for us because we thought maybe they’d really look at that and think that maybe we should get there.”

Kilhart said he’s confident the stretch of road is “on their radar” and is hopeful the town will receive the support for improvements to Route 2A/Main Street. The project, he said, is something that MassDOT would design, fund and facilitate, with Athol providing support services as needed.

Work on town’s Secret Bridge

The DPW director did say the town stands to gain from the $25 million set aside for MassDOT’s Municipal Small Bridges program. He said he anticipates some funding to make improvements to what is know locally as the Secret Bridge.

“That’s the bridge that’s next to the Crescent Street Bridge, which the state did for us a few years back – next to Starrett’s,” he said. “Starrett’s sluiceway goes under the road there, and there’s a small piece under the sidewalk. There’s some drainage structures that go into that—there’s a water main that goes through there; there’s a piece of that that’s currently under design. We applied for a small bridge grant, a construction grant, which we were granted by DOT.”

Kilhart said work on the bridge would be done by MassDOT, with the state and town meeting to finalize funding through the Small Bridge program.

“So, I anticipate getting some of that small bridge money for the Secret Bridge here in Athol,” said. “Those projects are relatively small in the grand scheme of things. Generally, those are projects that are under $250,000.”

Sidewalk upgrades

Kilhart said the town is likely to receive a portion of the $25 million dedicated to MassDOT’s Complete Streets program. Applications for Complete Streets will be available this fall. He added that the maximum allotment per community is $500,000 and the town received $384,000 a few years ago.

“So we have a note for us to apply for the balance, so we can apply up to that threshold of a half-million dollars. We intend to do that,” Kilhart said. “And we intend to secure some additional funding for sidewalk replacement like we have done in the past.”

Kilhart said any funds received would likely not be used for sidewalks included in the Chestnut/Hapgood streets project underway this summer.

“It may have to somehow tie into the area in which we did Complete Streets before, which would be Ridge Avenue – contiguous streets to where we worked before around Fish Park,” he said.

Kilhart said the town would likely try to find some municipal funds to complete the Ridge Avenue work.

“We might be able to complete Ridge Avenue on both sides of where our last Complete Streets project ended, right out to Exchange Street – or something of that nature.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.

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