Oxford Receives $2M for Main St. Project

By Craig S. Semon, Worcester Telegram

OXFORD — U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal joined Town Man­ager Jen­nifer M. Cal­la­han on Fri­day, Feb. 13, to announce $2 mil­lion in fed­eral fund­ing for the town’s Main Street Improve­ment Project.

The Oxford Main Street Improve­ment Project will imple­ment com­plete street improve­ments along the onemile cor­ridor of Main Street, Route 12, extend­ing from Front Street to Fair­lawn Avenue, a vital con­nector for res­id­ents, local busi­nesses and regional traffic. “With this fund­ing, we are help­ing to strengthen Oxford’s down­town, sup­port local busi­nesses, and improve the qual­ity of life for res­id­ents for years to come,” Neal said.

“One of the most essen­tial respons­ib­il­it­ies of Con­gress is over­see­ing the expendit­ure of the pub­lic purse.

Invest­ing in our local infra­struc­ture, espe­cially projects that improve safety and access­ib­il­ity and pro­mote eco­nomic vital­ity, is cer­tainly a worth­while invest­ment.”

The recon­struc­tion project will address sev­eral engin­eer­ing and plan­ning pri­or­it­ies by provid­ing mul­timodal and access­ible accom­mod­a­tions for all road­way users, includ­ing new bike accom­mod­a­tions, install­a­tion of an ADA/ AAB-com­pli­ant ped­es­trian facil­it­ies and the con­struc­tion of curb ramps throughout the cor­ridor.

In addi­tion, the project includes safety and oper­a­tional improve­ments at the inter­sec­tion of Main Street, Charlton Street and Sut­ton Avenue by provid­ing mod­ern traffic sig­nal equip­ment, imple­ment­ing geo­met­ric improve­ments and resur­fa­cing pave­ment.

The estim­ated cost of the fund­ing the entire project is $21 mil­lion.

The road­way has high volumes – 12,000-plus vehicles per day on the south­ern seg­ment and 16,000 on the north­ern seg­ments, plus the vehicles are trav­el­ing faster than they should, town offi­cials said.