$66M awarded for infrastructure projects

On Oct. 21, Gov. Deval Patrick announced a new round of MassWorks Infrastructure Program grants to advance local development projects across the state.

The grants total more than $66 million to support housing developments, infrastructure, road safety and revitalization projects. Cities and towns will be targeting investments to facilitate and support new and sustained housing and economic growth throughout Massachusetts.

The governor announced the grants while in Amherst, which received a $1.5 million award for the North Downtown Improvements Project to address infrastructure in the northern gateway to downtown Amherst and the southern entrance of the UMass Amherst campus. The area is currently made up of aging, low-rise, single-use commercial buildings and parking lots. The community re-zoned this area to allow for increased density and mixed-use developments.

The town’s MassWorks grant will be used to move utilities underground to support the construction of the mixed-use projects, which represent $30 million in private investment in the community.

In addition to the Amherst grant, the following projects were approved for funding:
• Billerica: $2.29 million for the Boston Road Redevelopment Project
• Boston: $2.37 million for street and sidewalk work at Bartlett Place in Roxbury
• Boston: $1.93 million for the Harvard Commons residential development at the Boston State Hospital site in Mattapan
• Boston: $1.95 million for Parcel 9, which will be the home of the Melnea Hotel & Residences
• Chelsea: $6 million for the Chelsea Gateway Center Infrastructure Improvement Plan
• Clarksburg: $920,000 for the Cross Town Corridor Project
• Colrain: $1 million for the Jacksonville Road Improvements Project
• Dartmouth: $2.2 million to reconfigure the intersection of Route 6, Route 177 and Beeden Road
• Easthampton: $3 million for improvements at the Pleasant Street Mills
• Framingham: $1 million for the Danforth Green housing development
• Hatfield: $360,000 to the Main Street Transportation Safety Improvements Project
• Heath: $983,000 for the Safety Improvements Project
• Hopkinton: $5.5 million for the Legacy Farms Smart Growth Development Project
• Lawrence: $3.93 million for the Merrimack Street Corridor Improvement Project
• Leominster: $1.33 million for the Adams Street redevelopment project
• Massachusetts Development Finance Agency: $2 million to rehabilitate two existing buildings to create the Springfield Innovation Center
• Melrose: $500,000 to create safer access for pedestrians between businesses and downtown bus routes to the Cedar Park commuter rail station
• Newton/Needham: $3.35 million for the Highland Avenue reconstruction project
• North Attleborough: $1.3 million to support public and private investments that will create commercial development, housing, a new bus station, and a new parking area
• Peabody: $1.5 million to support the Peabody Square Reconstruction Project
• Pittsfield: $4.5 million for the Streetscape Improvement Project, serving as a catalyst for redevelopment of the city’s downtown
• Princeton: $1 million to reconstruct a portion of Route 140/31
• Russell: $1 million for replacing a retaining wall and guardrail on Carrington Road
• Salem: $2.5 million for the Washington and Dodge Streets Public Infrastructure Improvements Project
• Salisbury: $1.7 million to upgrade the water distribution system in the town center
• Sheffield: $675,000 to replace two culverts along County Road
• Springfield: $4.2 million for the Union Station Regional Transportation project
• UMass Medical School: $5 million toward the Massachusetts Accelerator for Bio-Manufacturing Facility in Fall River’s SouthCoast Life Science and Technology Park
• Warren: $348,000 to replace the culvert carrying School Street Brook under Spring Street
• West Boylston: $1 million for construction of new sidewalks in the town center

MassWorks is administered by the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development and represents a consolidation of six capital budget programs, giving communities a single entry point and one set of requirements for state public infrastructure grants.

The Patrick administration reports that it has invested $291 million in MassWorks infrastructure and public improvements projects statewide since 2011.