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02/22/2017 07:51 AMThe plan to renovate Tuxis Walkway is currently awaiting approval from the Department of Transportation (DOT). In the meantime, with money in hand, town officials are working on the design component of the project and hope to send it to bid in the spring.
The walkway is a boardwalk-style pedestrian pathway that stretches between Bradley Road adjacent to the Webster Bank lot at the north and the Boston Post Road between the Firehouse and Cumberland Farms on the south, wrapping around the western edge of Tuxis Pond. It is the primary pedestrian link between the train station and Madison’s center.
In June 2016, the town received a $400,000 grant from the state’s Responsible Growth and Transit-Oriented Development Grant Program. According to Madison Director of Engineering Services Mike Ott, the grant was later turned over to DOT to be administered.
“The DOT is working through their process,” he said. “They asked us to submit a concept plan for the scope of work and a scope of work narrative, which we did. It is in their court right now. They have a process that they have to go through before they can give us the OK to go ahead with construction.”
Ott said the town is currently looking into materials and speaking with a structural engineer as the town waits for the formal DOT go-ahead. Improvements to the walkway will be aesthetic, but also structural.
“There is a structural problem for a small portion of the walk that has to be repaired,” he said. “The decking—if you were to walk it and take a look at the decking—is old. It was built in 1995, so the decking needs to be replaced and the railing system needs to either be improved or replaced.”
Most of Tuxis Walkway will look similar after construction according to Ott, but the town is planning to improve both walkway entrances.
“We wanted to make improvements at both entrances, both the Boston Post Road entrance and Bradley Road entrance to make them more obvious with signage and landscaping and lighting,” he said. “Make it more inviting.”
The $400,000 grant requires a 20 percent match in municipal funds. In the 2016/2107 Capital Improvement Program, $130,000 was approved for engineering services related to the rehabilitation of the walkway. The Board of Selectmen at its meeting on Feb. 13 raised questions over the possibility of the grant expiring, but Ott said that would be unlikely. Nevertheless, First Selectman Tom Banisch said he wants to get the project moving.
“We have seen now that the state is starting to pull back, so this is a good project and we want to get it done,” he said.
According to Ott, the town hopes to send the project out to bid this spring.