Busy season for Lynn road paving

LYNN – Bright orange road construction signs have popped up all over the city in recent weeks as road projects are under way.”It’s a busy time,” said acting Public Works Director Lisa Nerich.Lewis Street was milled last week and is set to be repaved Aug. 29. Nerich said Bennett Street, Suffolk Street Court and Exchange Street will be milled this week, along with Burdett Road and Prudence Street.”It will be the whole length of Bennett Street,” she said. “We’re also doing Roanoke Street in Ward 1.”The work is being done by D&R Contractors and it will interrupt the lives of homeowners, businesses and residents, at least temporarily. There will be no parking restrictions when crews are working, she said.The work is paid for with Chapter 90 money, which comes from the Department of Transportation.Along with funding local projects the state Highway Department is working on the Broadway project in Wyoma Square. Nerich said the project, which includes a slight reconfiguration of the square and new sidewalks down to Flax Pond, is 100 percent designed but won’t be completed until the spring of 2014.The Highway Department has also been in the city to repaint crosswalks.”We don’t have the equipment to do it, they do,” Nerich said.Because she had a few extra hands with summer help over the last six weeks, Nerich said she was able to do a survey of the city’s crosswalks. Many have faded or been all-but obliterated by time, she noted. The state has already painted many in front of and around the schools but there are more that need to be done before school starts on Sept. 4. Nerich said the only problem is she has no control over when the state comes.”We can’t schedule them,” she said. “We submit what needs to be done but they do when the can do it. Hopefully they will be back soon.”The crosswalk in front of the Brickett School on Lewis Street was wiped out when the street was milled last week. Nerich said she has alerted the crossing guards that there is a chance the crosswalk won’t be completed in time and if that is the case she will make sure they are out in full force.”There is a lot happening in the city,” Nerich added. “We have a lot going on.”