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August 20, 2008

Rantoul redesign on tap

Paul Leighton

BEVERLY — The city is ready to hire a company to redesign a two-mile stretch of Route 1A, a potentially $11 million project that officials hope will boost their plans to revitalize Rantoul Street.

Department of Public Works Director Michael Collins said the city will soon sign a contract with the Boston-based Dewberry company to redesign all of Rantoul Street and the portion of Cabot Street from Gloucester Crossing to the former Memorial Middle School.

The goal is to start construction in 2010, Collins said.

“It’s one of the most important projects we’re going to take on for the next several years,” he said. “It’s going to breathe new life into downtown.”

Collins said the project could cost around $11 million, although he said that figure could change. Mayor Bill Scanlon said the state and federal governments will pay for most of the work.

“It’s an absolutely essential thoroughfare to get improved,” Scanlon said. “We expect significant development and redevelopment along Rantoul Street in coming years. We think it deserves significant attention.”

The project has been on the state’s list of transportation improvement projects since at least the early 1990s. The city had a preliminary design plan done back then, but the project was put off when the northern portion of Route 1A was improved first, Collins said.

The project will include everything from new sidewalks and curbing to trees and plantings and possibly period lighting. Scanlon said the utility lines will be buried underground and the main water pipe from Wenham Lake to Salem, which runs under Route 1A, will be upgraded. The current water pipe is “very ancient,” he said.

A street with potential

For the last few years, city officials have been touting the milelong Rantoul Street, which now includes vacant buildings and undeveloped lots, as a road with untapped potential for a mix of condominiums, shops, cafés and art galleries.

Banking on the street’s proximity to the train depot, Manchester-based Windover Development has already built the Depot Square condominiums and has long-term plans to invest millions more in condos and shops. Across from Depot Square, Redbrick Arts Center rents art galleries and live-in lofts in a renovated mill building, with Monet’s Garden Art Café on the first floor.

The MBTA, after years of speculation, is going ahead with plans to build a parking garage with at least 500 spaces near the depot. The agency is currently assessing five offers from nearby property owners to sell land for the garage to the MBTA.

On the other end of Rantoul Street, near the Gloucester Crossing railroad intersection, a developer plans to turn the former Friendly’s site into offices and shops. And the owner of the vacant former Curious Creatures building at the corner of Rantoul and Elliott streets has said he plans to tear down the building and develop that site.

Collins said planners will be able to design the street to fit with Rantoul’s new image.

“The streetscape is going to be very important to set the tone for how that street feels and how it functions,” he said. “I’m really excited for that project. There’s so much growth on Rantoul Street. It’s going to be such a beautiful project when it’s done.”

Collins said the project will also give planners the chance to improve Gloucester Crossing, which includes the intersection of four streets and a railroad crossing.

Million-dollar transportation projects are notorious for taking years before they become reality. Collins said the state wants such projects “25 percent designed” before it will commit money, so the hiring of a design company will get Beverly started in that direction.

Scanlon said he didn’t want to commit to a time line, but conceded that 2010 is a goal for construction to start.

Scanlon noted that the project, combined with the northern Route 1A project that was completed in 2002 and the just-finished bypass road in Salem, will create a virtually new road from downtown Salem all the way to the Wenham line.

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