Swampscott Paving To Start On Humphrey

The overdue allocation of paving funds should be headed to Massachusetts towns soon now that the Legislature has approved the appropriations.

Town Administrator Tom Younger said the Chapter 90 bill was on the governor's desk Friday.

The administrator expects Swampscott's $302,863 allocation will arrive in mid-July.

Gino Cresta, Swampscott's director, said the town opened bids recently on a paving contract with $950,000 worth of work.

The bids came in very competitive. DR Paving of Melrose bid of $840,000 was the most competitive.

The contract gives the paving company 90 days to complete the work. It will start by the end of July, the director said.

The first job will be paving Humphrey Street from the Marblehead town line to the Puritan Road and Atlantic Avenue split, Cresta said.

Salem Street will likely be paved early in the contract, he said.

The full schedule will be developed in August, he said.

Younger wants to develop a five-year paving plan that will identify roads scheduled for work, their length, the type of work to be done and the estimated cost.

This information would be posted on the town website.

Earlier, town officials were worried that the delay in the allocation of state aid for road repairs would result in a shortened paving season.

But at this point it does not appear the season will be shortened.