Each week, City Manager Tom Aspell digs a hole and puts a city memo in it. Then he invites an audience, digs it up, proclaims it to be prehistoric and reads it aloud.
The happy couple
City partners with designer
The city has engaged a design team led by the H.L. Turner Group for the new citywide community center, Aspell writes. The engagement featured a modest ring and a classic proposal on the State House steps.
Turner has partnered with BH+A (a Boston-based architectural firm specializing in community centers), as well as Shadley Associates (landscape architecture), Milestone Construction of Concord (construction cost estimating), HTE Northeast (geotechnical engineering), and BTW Engineers (electrical/telecom engineering). BTW, we assume BTW was named before the dawn of the text-message-as-its-own language era.
H.L. Turner was selected from a field of 10 design teams that responded to the city’s request for proposals. The city gave one rose out each week to the teams until the field was whittled down.
The contract award for phase I services is $122,000, per funding approved in the fiscal year 2014 budget. The project will get underway in the next several weeks. For a more specific timetable, assign your own meaning to the word “several.” Subject to appropriation of additional funds, the Turner team would be retained for full design of the project and construction administration. Separate from the Turner contract, boundary survey services are being provided by Richard Bartlett of Concord in the amount of $12,500, and are currently underway.
Rain is a pain
When working on a drain
The rainy weather of last week put a damper on progress of the drain work that was supposed to take place in the vicinity of Elm Street, Aspell writes. It was kind of a nightmare, actually.
The contractor was able to perform the pavement saw cutting for the intersections, trenches and driveways, as well as the beginning of tree removal. We presume, like any good story, that tree removal will eventually have a proper middle and end.
Construction of some of the drainage components from the bridge heading north to the Boscawen town line will continue into this week. Please be patient and use caution traveling through the construction zones as work progresses through the village. That means no honking or middle fingers.
Let us call you a cab
Drainage is happening
This week, Continental Paving will focus on installing drainage at the east end of the new taxiway at the Concord Municipal Airport, Aspell writes. This should finally pave the way for those flying taxis we’ve all been waiting for. Approximately 80 percent of the new fence has been installed. F.L. Merrill Construction will be working on cut and fills to bring the west end of the taxiway to subgrade level.
