GREENFIELD — The previously cleared lot on Main Street near Coombs Avenue is starting to come to life with construction of the new fire station now well underway.

Foundation work is expected to be completed this week, with steel erection continuing over the next few weeks. Steel decking — the structural elements of the roof — is scheduled to arrive mid-March, according to Project Manager Neil Joyce.

“Everything looks like it’s coming together quite well,” said Joyce. “We’re maintaining the project schedule as we know it today.”

Construction is expected to be completed by late 2023 or early 2024.

“That’s really good news,” Co-Chair Butch Hawkins said during last week’s Fire Station Building Committee meeting. “Everybody was kind of worried about the winter being bad and putting them behind (schedule), but they’ve been very fortunate.”

The $21.7 million cost of the project includes $2 million for the temporary station on Hope Street, which firefighters moved into in September 2021. In September 2022, the Fire Station Building Committee’s decision to award the $14.47 million contract for the new building’s construction to D.A. Sullivan & Sons resulted in a budget shortfall for the project of $2.75 million. Previously, $18 million had been budgeted.

To compensate for the $2.75 million shortfall, Mayor Roxann Wedegartner requested that City Council appropriate $1.75 million — a sum composed of bond premium and capital stabilization — and $500,000 in borrowing. Wedegartner is also contributing another $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, bringing her contribution in ARPA funds for the fire station to $2 million. Lastly, City Council accepted a $978,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant that goes toward the fire station’s construction.

Joyce said determining pricing and options for furniture and equipment will begin soon and occur parallel to the construction schedule. The hope, he said, is to have vendor pricing and orders placed by mid-summer.

Fire Chief Robert Strahan told Fire Station Building Committee members he has been impressed so far with the professionalism of the construction team.

“It’s fun walking through to say, ‘This is where the radio room is (or) this is where the office is,’” he said. “It’s starting to look like a building. It’s very exciting.”

Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne.

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