Jacksonville Road slope stabilization project starts Monday in Colrain

Colrain Selectboard members discuss the Jacksonville Road slope stabilization project on Tuesday.

Colrain Selectboard members discuss the Jacksonville Road slope stabilization project on Tuesday. STAFF PHOTO/MADISON SCHOFIELD

By MADISON SCHOFIELD

Staff Writer

Published: 09-13-2024 3:03 PM

Modified: 09-13-2024 7:43 PM


COLRAIN — Construction on the Jacksonville Road slope stabilization project is set to begin on Monday.

Work will include removing material from a failed slope along the road, constructing a new slope made up of layers of crushed stone and filter fabric to reinforce the area and prevent future erosion, and drainage installation. The slope collapsed in December 2022 in the wake of flooding.

The contract was awarded to Stow-based ET&L Corp. on Aug. 30. The company was selected out of five bids, with the lowest price of $723,035.

The project is state funded, as the town was awarded a $1 million MassWorks infrastructure grant in 2023. According to the bid specification documents from the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, $828,787 was budgeted for construction. With ET&L’s low bid, the town will have about $105,752 left over.

The wiggle room in the budget comes in handy as the town ran out of money for engineering, Town Administrator Diana Parsons told the Selectboard this week.

“Now we are about to proceed onsite and have the contractor onsite, and the engineering contract has been exhausted,” she said.

Parsons explained $134,000 was set aside for engineering and design, but this amount did not include enough for construction oversight. She is not sure why the engineering contract was developed and budgeted that way, as it happened before she was hired as town administrator, but she believes it may have been done to save money.

“Permitting and some of those other costs exceeded what the I think the original contract thought it would be … so the money they thought they were gonna have for construction phase engineering and oversight now has been completely depleted,” she said. “Regardless, we do need some engineering for construction. … We need to have it.”

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An extension of the engineering contract with BSC Group, with oversight and review from Geosciences Testing and Research Inc., will cost the town $27,000. The fee will include six visits to the construction site.

Parsons said the amount should cover all the necessary engineering for the rest of the project. Thankfully, the town has money left over from the MassWorks infrastructure grant and money left in an account that was started for the project before it became a state-funded project that will be able to cover it.

“This is a very complicated project,” Parsons said. “I just want everything to go perfectly.”

The Selectboard agreed that engineering support will be needed throughout the construction phase and unanimously agreed to approve the contract on Tuesday.

While construction on Jacksonville Road is expected to begin on Monday, no road closures are expected. Per the contract, work is expected to be done by Nov. 15.

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.