By JACK ENCARNACAO
The Patriot Ledger

WEYMOUTH - A Route 18 improvement project got a boost when the state Highway Department announced that work on three intersections will be done simultaneously by one contractor.

Some people anticipated that the intersections would be worked on one by one, but state highway officials were able to lump them together, which likely means the work will be finished sooner.

‘‘You can centralize work and effort and manpower on the projects themselves because they are combined into one,’’ Erik Abell, spokesman for the state’s Executive Office of Transportation, said yesterday.

The improvements include widening Route 18 and rebuilding the intersections at Middle, Park and Columbian streets.

The work will be advertised to contractors until late August. After bids have been submitted, a company will be selected to do the work, some of which is expected to take place in the fall, Abell said. The work is to be completed by November of 2008.

The work is important to redevelopment of the South Weymouth Naval Air Station because the state requires completion of the project before homes and businesses can be built on the former base.

A widened Route 18 and improved intersections will also help carry the thousands of vehicles expected to travel to and from the redeveloped 1,405-acre base each day.

Terry Fancher, executive director of the base overseer, Tri-Town Development Corp., said the state Highway Department’s announcement is ‘‘excellent news.’’

‘‘It’s one that we’ve been holding our breaths on,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve been pushing for a while to keep those intersections as a package. It seems to make sense... If you can have them as a package deal, it will get the job done a little bit quicker than it might have before.’’

The Pond Street-Pleasant Street intersection project, completed recently, took far longer than expected. Utility companies and the Highway Department could not coordinate with each other, and workers were unable to finish final phases of the project until utility companies moved their poles and wires.

‘‘It went on for two full construction seasons. There’s no way that we can go through that agony again,’’ said town council member Michael Smart, whose district includes the Route 18 area. ‘‘They certainly need to do a better job coordinating it. Those things need to be ironed out prior (to work starting).’’

Base developer LNR Property Corp. is working with utility companies to ensure that relocation of utility poles and other equipment takes place in a timely manner along with the intersection improvements.

Asked in May about the utility snafus on the first job, Highway Department spokesman Jon Carlisle said, ‘‘Unfortunately, utility work is something that does become an issue from time to time, largely because it’s out of our control. You have to deal with utilities when you do something like this.’’

One of the first steps in the new intersection projects is land taking: state purchasing of driveways, curbs and any other slivers of land that will be paved over when streets are widened.

By the time the four intersections have been completed, the state will have acquired 209 parcels of land along Route 18 to allow the improvements.

Jack Encarnacao may be reached at jencarnacao@ledger.com .

Copyright 2006 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Wednesday, July 12, 2006