Drivers In Store for Smoother Commute Along 138

Farewell potholes. By next, it will be smooth sailing down for commuters. After three years of waiting for funding, the Town of Canton has received $1 million to improve Route 138.

“We’ve received notification that the project has actually been bid (on) and the contractor has essentially started work,” Canton Town Administrator Bill Friel said.  The received the funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Metro Planning Organization’s Transportation Improvement Plan last week.

The roadwork will include the installation of new sidewalk on the west side of 138, upgrading and repaving of the road, installing drainage, minor landscaping, new signs and line painting, according to Friel.  This would complete work on Route 138, from the highway to Stoughton.

Canton was awarded the funds after a competitive process, Friel noted, adding that several towns and cities compete for these funds.

Route 138 “has been in poor condition for so long,” the town administrator said. “The improvements are something (the town and state) have really made a priority.”

“We’re excited the was able to get the funding and anxious to see the work completed,” Friel said. 

The improvements are expected to be completed by the spring of 2012 and partial improvements will be made by the end of 2011.

Without the funding, the town would not have had the money to make the needed road improvements, he stated.  The town spent no local money on the project, except for the design.

“We did pay for that cost of design but (the money) came from the NStar mitigation money that we negotiated some years back, when they installed a line under 138,” Friel said.