On Friday, November 3, the Town of Hopkinton announced that construction on Main Street has been suspended for the winter. Residents had previously noted that the paint on some of the new traffic signal poles is peeling, and MassDOT is advocating for a full replacement of the affected poles in 2024.
Last July, Eversource informed Town Manager Norman Khumalo that supply chain problems were affecting their ability to deliver underground transformers. In a note to builders, Eversource cited supply disruptions, labor shortages and rising costs as the main reasons for the lack of equipment. At the time, they expected the problems to last at least through 2022.
There are 13 electrical vaults along Main Street that are waiting for transformers to be installed, which is the next required step to move all utilities underground. To date, Eversource has not provided an ETA for this equipment, which has compromised the project completion date.
Construction is expected to resume in the Spring, pending delivery of the transformers. Once this occurs, final paving and brick work will be completed, signal poles will be replaced and trees will be planted.
The bike lanes look fantastic! Winter should be fun!
If this story is correct, and the Town Manager did know as far back as mid-2022 of these transformer delays, why was the town announcing as recently as April of *2023* that the project was nearing completion and entering the final construction season?
They had to know these statements weren’t true, right?
https://hopnews.com/town-of-hopkinton-nears-completion-of-main-street-corridor-project-construction-ongoing-since-march-2021/
I’m genuinely curious; has anyone witnessed a cyclist use the “bike lane”? I don’t swing that way, but I’d rather take my chances riding in the newly tightened traffic lanes over risking my life between the granite curb, concrete lip of the sidewalk and wavering asphalt.
I have. And it’s ridiculously wide. And the stretch from the Upton side of Main St to Pleasant St. is of a grade that the everyday/average biker won’t likely ever use it. And regular road bikers like me never asked for it- we don’t need it. It was, and continues to be, a solution looking for a problem that never existed.
Yeah, about one bicycle a month. Well, at least the DPW will have a place to pile the snow.
Hopefully the town is not planning on plowing these, as that would be another waste of resources.
It doesn’t give much confidence in a potential $150+ million project if the town can’t complete a much less expensive project in a timely manner. I’m sure the new project will also require transformers.
As an avid motorcyclist I’m happy to have dedicated lanes for passing cars stuck in gridlock.
I don’t think anyone put much thought into this project. The roads are narrow, trucks turning right have an problem,sidewalks don’t look ADA compliant and that bike lane looks ridiculous!
There was thought put into the project but maybe they didn’t think of the unintended consequences. The narrow roads were meant for traffic calming to slow down vehicular traffic in order to make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists. The unintended consequences are: difficulty for emergency vehicles, huge traffic backups, vehicles making left turns or trying to parallel park can create a blockade behind them, small radius turns make it difficult for larger vehicles and buses/trucks, curb indentations for parallel parking look like they are 1/2 the width of a vehicle, traffic lights aren’t smart enough to realize which roadway should be given priority, etc.
I would like to see the town admit mistakes were made and get a third party engineering review, ideally not from a firm tied to MassDOT. Some of the problems created by this project, such as the fact that a truck can’t easily turn right from Hayden Rowe to Main St, and the sharp turn from Main to Wood St, seem fixable.
All these unfortunate issues with the change in the roads makes me wonder who in authority in our town signed off on the construction and gave their okay. Did they understand the specifications?!!! I understand too little too late, but, geez!
This “downtown” project is a disaster. I heard over and over from a former Select Board member that Hopkinton would become a “destination town” because of it. Why?…….Right now there is not much to see in our downtown. Lots of empty spaces. Gas, a couple of okay eating places and frozen yogurt, liquor, muffins, drug store, a real estate office, clothes cleaner. Nothing you can’t find in just about any other nearby town. A huge yawn. The narrow street with sidewalks is an accident waiting to happen. I will stay clear of that whole area. DPotz
Might that be the same former BoS member who said, with respect to the project’s effect on businesses, at a BoS meeting 24 Sept 2019, quoting, “The revenue lost, that needs to be taken care of.”
Drive to Upton from Hopkinton – beautiful (yes they can be beautiful) smoothly paved roadways – a federal
project with the Town – completed in a reasonable amount of time. The bike lanes are painted on – imagine
that! – no highly visible rough pavement, no raised curbs – no eyesore like in Hopkinton that pushes cars into wide berth trucks coming at you. Another example? Go down Rte. 122A in Grafton – another beautifully paved roadway completed in a timely manner. It is very ironic that this road goes past Amorello Construction offices. It can be done. It should have been done in Hopkinton. Perhaps it was done when your Town Manager was looking for employment in other areas such as Cambridge. What should be done? Perhaps the TM should be done….
There was a group formed prior to this project getting approved known as the “Main Street Alliance” that tried to educate voters on the issues that were inevitably going to come up. They pleaded their case and it fell on deaf ears. You reap what you sow. Enjoy the continued debacle and keep that in mind next time the “Free Government Money” gets dangled in your face for the next big project.
I look back at my time in Hopkinton and we have some very committed citizens and I will admit while on Permanent Building Committee and Planning Board i made mistakes and I hope others would recognize they made them too. As to Main St it was clear we were never going to be able to solve the traffic problem downtown and by taking the State funding and what came with it even less improvement was to be made. The idea that putting the power lines underground to beautify downtown was worth millions of dollars in retrospect – 3 million for a few blocks-‘I apologize to my neighbors for voting for it. As you look at downtown options going forward realize the economy is fragile. Hopkinton Drug is out; Town employees never contributed a lot to lunch business but visitors to Town Hall did; having hills, two gas stations and set backs make it a delicate balance. Talk to the merchants and get their input – listen. As to school enrollment growth we were told we had a handle on it year after year. We didn’t. At PB when it was brought up for Marathon School were we confident it was big enough the committee was a look at how many classrooms had to be added since the original plans. You continue to have empty nesters moving out and families with kids back filling the same houses. Let’s look at property values. Assessments on the commercial parcels were flat to down 23 to 24 in Hopkinton (looking at W Main and South St) Lucky residential up. What do you think is going to happen over the next few years with mortgage rates at 8%? And office occupancy rates still low? Hopkinton is a great community blessed by some very smart residents and a diverse community. Take deliberate actions when you are confident you have the information you have to make an informed decision. I am now in NC and I wished I had listened to my own advice when I lived in MA.