FROED One Government Center Fall River, MA 02722-7700 Tel 508-324-2620 Fax 508-677-2840 info@froed.org		INTERCHANGE PROJECT IS SPEEDING ALONG Route 24, I-195 connection on the fast track as process is shortened The Herald News, Monday, May 25, 2009 - Page A1 FALL RIVER — With approvals from the state's Department of Environmental Protection and Environmental Policy Act Office secured, the project to build a new Route 24 interchange between Exits 8 and 9 on has cleared a major hurdle. But now officials must turn to the drawing board to design the new connection. The project — which will be fully funded by federal dollars — includes the construction of a new interchange and new access roadways east to the proposed Southcoast BioPark and west to South Main Street in Freetown. The project would also include a eastbound link to the new Executive Park Drive that would meet Riggenbach Road in the park, which will be upgraded by the city of Fall River. The project compresses the traditional design-bid-build method into a single entity, which generally consists of a lead designer and contractor responsible for design and construction of a project. Working together, design and construction teams are able to complete projects within shorter timelines, which is a requirement for this project to use federal stimulus funding. Because of the accelerated schedule, MassHighway Spokesman Adam Hurtubise said the project does not require a complete design prior to advertisement, which slices years from the timeline. It also allows the state to pay for the project in today's dollars, rather than waiting for a full design to be complete before bidding. “The process allows for flexibility and innovation in the design and scheduling of the projects, which are factors in the technical evaluation of Best Value,” Hurtubise said. “A Value Engineering review was also completed for the project which resulted in a savings of about $16 million.” The BioPark is being developed on 300 acres of land in Freetown and Fall River being transferred from the Freetown State Forest to the City of Fall River for development as an office park in exchange for a Fall River conservation restriction on 4,300 acres of land for the Southeast Massachusetts Bioreserve, an initiative of the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. The BioPark is proposed to include up to 3 million square feet of corporate campus office space in up to 20 buildings. “MassHighway is also working with the City of Fall River to maintain coordination between the two projects. The 25 percent design plans have been circulated within MassHighway,” said Hurtubise. “The next step is to issue the Request for Proposal document to the shortlisted design-build entities, of which there are four, and to allow them to prepare technical proposals and prices for the project.” The RFP is scheduled to be issued in mid-June, Hurtubise said, and a review of the technical proposals will be completed at the end of the summer, with a selection to be made in the fall. MassHighway would not provide any kind of construction schedule for the project, but Fall River Office of Economic Development Executive Vice President Kenneth Fiola Jr., said his hope is to see the shovels in the ground this fall and work completed by the end of 2011. “We’re looking at the project to take roughly two to two-and-a-half years to complete, which will allow us the time to subdivide the park and begin selling off the parcels,” said Fiola, with the park’s first tenant to be a University of Massachusetts Dartmouth bioprocessing facility. “The thing with this design/build format is that its shaved off more the 30 percent of the time this project would have normally taken if it had gone to a full design.” Two million in grants from the state were awarded to Fall River to help extend Riggenbach Road in the new BioPark, but Fiola admitted there will be another $2.2 million needed to complete the entire extension. “We’re hoping the state will come forward with the rest of the funds so that we can also complete this portion of the project,” said Fiola. Back