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City details $30 million Downtown Broadway project, promises business supports during construction
Summary
The city manager told the council the Downtown Broadway reconstruction will cost over $30 million and will replace major utilities and traffic infrastructure; the administration outlined outreach and temporary business supports, including a reduced business-day sticker fee for affected downtown businesses.
The Chelsea administration told the City Council on Nov. 18 that the Downtown Broadway reconstruction will be the city’s largest single project in recent memory, with an estimated cost in excess of $30,000,000 and significant state and federal grant support.
In a communication read at the meeting, the city manager said the project will replace water, stormwater and sewer infrastructure, change traffic flows on Fifth Street and Hawthorne, install traffic signals at hazardous intersections and add new sidewalks across the corridor. The letter described outreach the administration has conducted over the past eight months and said the project is both the city’s biggest challenge and opportunity.
To reduce impacts on small businesses in the construction zone, staff outlined several programs, including limiting construction work hours to Monday–Friday until 5 p.m. where possible and reducing the cost of the business-day parking sticker for businesses and employees located in the construction zone from $150 per six months to $50 per six months.
A councilor who spoke after the communication praised ongoing outreach and mitigation efforts, saying the administration was doing “the best we can to support [business owners] every step of the way.”
City staff also noted they secured significant state and federal funding that covers a large portion of the infrastructure cost; the communication did not specify exact grant sources in the text read aloud. Councilors accepted and filed the communication without objection.
