Swampscott officials eying early March kickoff for police station construction project

SWAMPSCOTT – Officials said they are shooting to start construction of the new police station by March 5, by which time the temporary pump and sewer bypass line at the wastewater pumping station at the site will be removed.”They’ve already kind of started a little bit ?doing some digging around down there,” Temporary Town Administrator Dave Castellarin said Tuesday. “They will do test-pile next week or the week after and we expect fully, sometime around March 5, the construction to start.”Town officials held a ground-breaking at the Humphrey Street site of the planned police station in December. But the site is also the location of the town’s wastewater pumping station, which experienced a catastrophic failure on Sept. 25 that flooded the lower levels of the building with an 18-foot deep pool of raw sewage.The town installed a temporary bypass sewer system and pump while the pumping station was repaired. But town officials in mid-January said the contractors for the police station were concerned about the potential liability of bringing heavy equipment to the site and asked to delay the project until the temporary system was removed.Town officials said Tuesday that the temporary system should be removed by March 5.The Police Station Building Committee met Monday night and member Martin Goldman said Tuesday that the committee will begin meeting monthly while the construction is underway in order to approve bills and address other issues.The committee raised concern at a meeting in November about dedicating money in a construction contingency fund to address “odor mitigation” work at the site.Castellarin and Cresta said Tuesday that the money for such odor was in the police station building budget but the town has not decided on what that work may entail.Cresta suggested that the Public Works Department could do odor control work, but Castellarin expected the project would have to go out to bid.”We always wanted some type of odor mitigation in there,” said Selectman Chair Matt Strauss. “The question is at what level. I think it will be a part of the project and evaluating it as we go further.”But neither Strauss, Cresta nor Castellarin said they expected having to seek more money for the project.Cyrus Moulton can be reached at [email protected].