DEERFIELD — Don’t get used to the lack of construction on Interstate 91 North; as one project finishes, another project will soon begin.
According to Judith Riley, spokeswoman for MassDOT, soon after the I-91 bridge replacement work is completed, a separate interstate resurfacing project is set to begin in either the spring or summer of next year.
Riley said it’ll cost the state roughly $15 million and will cover more than 11 miles through Deerfield, Whately, Hatfield and Northampton — from mile marker 26.97 to around marker 40 — on both the north and south lanes.
Specifically, Riley said that work will encompass “interstate maintenance with pavement preservation and safety improvements.”
The news comes around the same time Peter Rizzuto, project superintendent and engineer with J.F White Contracting Inc. — the construction company tasked with replacing the old southbound and northbound I-91 bridges over the Deerfield River and Lower Road, near mile marker 40 — said his company has completed work and is waiting for the state’s stamp of approval.
“We’re ready to pull our trailers and leave,” Rizzuto said about the timeline of the almost $40 million state project. “We’re just waiting for a punch list from the state. Then, it’s on to the next job.”
The two-bridge replacement project, which started in 2012, took about four years to complete and required the re-routing of both lanes in order to build the new bridges. Most recently, workers planted trees and shrubs along the interstate.
The public was alerted to the upcoming work through a legal ad posted in the newspaper earlier this month for a recent Conservation Commission meeting notice about a “project for resurfacing and related work on I-91 extending from the Whately town line to the Greenfield town line.”
You can reach Andy Castillo
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