On Wednesday, the aldermen's Finance Committee will review bids for new mast arms, LED lighting, street light poles and traffic signals on Main Street, as part of a $2 million plan to give downtown a sidewalk upgrade and a facelift.
According to a memo from city purchasing manager Robert Gabriel to the committee, the city will replace 12 decorative mast arms along Main Street, from Amherst and Lowell streets to East Hollis and West Hollis streets.
If aldermen approve the replacement bid, Jefferson said, Ohio-based King Luminaire mast arms will be purchased for $56,637.
The new mast arms will include LED pendants over the roadway and sidewalk areas to reduce the number of light poles needed on Main Street and to offer the "most cost-effective lighting over the long-term" based on anticipated energy savings.
Street light poles along Main Street, south of the Main Street Bridge, also will be replaced.
To install the new mast arms with the new signal heads, aldermen also will review a $140,200 contract to low bidder New England Signal of Northwood on Wednesday. Two companies submitted bids on the project, Gabriel said in a memo to the committee.
The $196,837 project will be funded through general fund escrows.
The new mast arms will put the final touches on the first leg of the city's two- to three-year plan to improve Main Street sidewalks and to freshen up downtown.
The sidewalk construction work, completed in-house by the Division of Public Works, has been ongoing on the north end of Main Street on both sides of the Main Street Bridge.
City residents also will see new benches, trash bins and trees installed up and down Main Street as work is completed.
Public Works director Lisa Fauteux told The Telegraph last month that the next target in the city's sidewalk plan this construction season is a section of Water Street from Darrell's Music Hall down to the parking lot by the Riverfront Park, plus a few additional areas that have substantial hazards.
The final project will make over 10 blocks on Main Street.
