Photo by Lester Smith
A dump truck feeds asphalt mix to the paving machine covering the new utilities trench on South Street, with the road roller close behind. The work was done this summer in mid-day periods, avoiding rush-hour traffic.
The southern end of South Street (Route 75) is zoned for industrial development, and Suffield has benefitted, tax-wise, by the several industries that have chosen to build there in recent decades. With payments from the State of Connecticut when the first building of the MacDougall-Walker prison was built, Suffield was able to erect a new water tower and extend utilities to serve some of that industrial zone. Recently, as First Selectman Melissa Mack reported in the Observer’s June issue, the Town has undertaken a project to extend water and sanitary sewer service further south along South Street. The purpose of this project was, as Mack put it, “to better position the town for commercial development on 80 acres of buildable land near Bradley International Airport.” The cost was primarily supported by a $980,000 state grant.
Road work has been visible to drivers this summer along a quarter-mile stretch of the highway between the north fence line of the airport (just south of Poulin Trucking) down to the industrial building just north of Executive Valet Parking. A new water main now extends down the road from the south-east corner of Suffield’s Mach One Industrial Park to the same spot. A short stretch of new sewer main along South Street at the south end of the affected region connects in a trench about 700 feet through the woods to an existing trunk line that now serves the region closer to Austin and Spencer Streets. That 700-foot connection passes through a 63-acre, town-owned, developable parcel on South Street, some of which is being planned, or at least considered, as a future location for the Town highway garage now on Ffyler Place.
Economic Development Director Patrick McMahon has submitted a grant request for Phase II of the South Street project. This work would carry both the water and sewer service down closer to the Windsor Locks town line to serve additional light-industrial-zoned properties.