MONTAGUE — With a metal skeleton in place, and walls and ceilings set to go up in the next month, construction of the new Public Works building at the corner of Turnpike Road and Turners Falls Road is on track to be finished this summer.
Construction has been ongoing since August, with the Selectboard having accepted a $7.6 million bid for the work from BW Construction, of Spencer, the month before. Up to $11.2 million may be borrowed for the entire project, per a town election question in May 2018.
At about 28,000 square feet, the new building is nearly three times the size of the current Public Works building on the southern part of Avenue A, according to Public Works Superintendent Tom Bergeron.
Unlike the current building, this one’s garage will have space to fit almost all the department’s vehicles, which number about 35 and range in size from a 10-wheeler truck with a plow to several pick-up trucks, Bergeron said. Now, the department has to store about 12 vehicles outside, plus other equipment, he said.
“The biggest thing will be the ability to drive our trucks inside and leave the plows on,” Bergeron said of the new building’s perks. “We can’t even fathom doing that now.”
The new space will also expand several of the department’s facilities, and consolidate ones that have been located in different places. The mechanics’ bay will be larger than the present one and will add lifts, Bergeron said. The salt shed and fueling station, which now are located at the Transfer Station on Turnpike Road, are planned to be at the same space with the new building.
Of those two, only the salt shed is already constructed. The design of the fueling station is currently out for bids, said Town Administrator Steve Ellis, who is also on the Public Works Building Committee. Early cost estimates ranged from under $400,000 to as high as $750,000; if the price turns out to be significantly higher than $400,000, the committee may reconsider whether to include a fueling station, Ellis said.
In color, the new building will be a brownish red with a light gray roof, said Building Committee Chair Ken Morin. The coloring was intended to be different from typical industrial buildings, and was instead modeled after traditional New England-style barns, Morin said.
Ultimately the building will also have shrubbery around its parking lot to give some visual screening from the road, Ellis said. At this stage, the building is only a large metal frame in a muddy field behind the Public Safety building; but Ellis said project managers have set an “aggressive” timeline for completion by June, and expect at latest to be finished before summer’s end.
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 261.