Construction projects in Peterborough are humming along, Town Administrator Rodney Bartlett reported at a presentation with the Grand Monadnock Rotary Club last week.
Bartlett addressed the Main Street Bridge, Route 202, Peterborough Town Library, and Transcript dam construction projects, as well as the Cold Stone Spring development and town hall renovations, and fielded questions from club members who called into the virtual meeting.
The Main Street Bridge project progress can be tracked via the highly frequented pedestrian bridge next to the site as well as on peterboroughnhbridge.com (not to be confused with the site devoted to the bridge under construction in Peterborough, Ontario, Bartlett said). By night, workers are helping Consolidated Communications to situate nine conduits for cables under the large I-beam on the worksite. The conduit services everything in town west of the Contoocook, Bartlett said. “Hopefully with some good luck, that remains intact for the entire project,” he said. Early work on the bridge was delayed when a worker tested positive for COVID-19 and the whole crew had to quarantine, Bartlett said. “Since that one issue it’s been pretty positive on the jobsite,” he said.
On Pine Street, workers are preparing to repair the retaining wall that supports Route 202, Bartlett said. Construction on the Main Street Bridge and Route 202 is set to continue well into the winter, and both projects are due to be substantially completed by the end of summer 2021, Bartlett said, with the bridge scheduled to reopen in the fall of 2021. The finishing touch will be returning all the granite face stones to their exact positions, he said.
At the library, workers are excavating to set new footings and lay new concrete, with all renovations scheduled for completion next August. The east side of the Transcript dam, just upstream of the Main Street Bridge, is scheduled to be rebuilt during the bridge and Route 202 retaining wall construction. The east end has been failing and was recently held up by wood and logs, Bartlett said, and the town opted to repair the dam and keep it serviceable for aesthetic reasons, although it’s classified as a non-hazard and has negligible impact on flood control. “It was one of the first impoundments built in Peterborough,” he said. The town recently removed the dam’s boards to lower the water level, which will stay down as they finish the work. Upgrades to the dam are scheduled to be completed in 2022 after the other projects finish, he said.
Bartlett noted to the group that the Main Street Bridge project was among the $28 million worth of capital projects he was handed when he became Town Administrator 14 years ago. “There’s over 20 million worth of construction just in that corner that the town’s managing,” he said.
Bartlett said the Cold Stone Springs watershed development project is currently securing funding. “Just when you thought we couldn’t find another project,” he said. The 12.6 million dollar project will develop a spring that will bolster Peterborough and Jaffrey’s water supply by providing 200,000 gallons a day, up to a maximum of a half million. Peterborough has pledged $7.7 million, which has been secured between a four million dollar bond voters passed at a previous Town Meeting, and a 3.6 million dollar grant via the New Hampshire Drinking Water Trust Fund Commission. Jaffrey’s $4.9 million is coming from a bond voters passed this year, and two economic development grants from the Community Development Finance Authority and the Northern Border Regional Commission. In Peterborough, the water supply will replace the South well, which was lost to contamination in the early 1980s, Bartlett said, and underscore the town’s reputation as a good place to live, work, and locate a company. In Jaffrey, the water will support the expansion of Millipore Sigma, which currently employs 1,000 and intends to hire 500 more over the next four or five years, Bartlett said, adding that their products are being used in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine. Construction is slated to start in late 2021 and the well is scheduled to go on line at the end of 2022.
Peterborough Town House renovations are almost complete, he said. It’s had its upper hall repainted and the floor replaced, there are new curtains on the stage, the brickwork on the front patio has been improved, and there’s a new slate roof, Bartlett said, and the town received a $160,000 grant from LCHIP to offset the improvement costs. “It will certainly be nice to open the townhouse to the public,” he said.
Bartlett said he’s retiring this year on Dec. 30. “I can’t wait right now, it has been a long year and it’s not over,” he said, and that he’s always felt supported in the town projects he’s managed by the budget committee as well as voters.