Route 79 construction project is ahead of schedule by 3 months. Here's how it's going.

FALL RIVER — The construction of the $135 million Route 79-Davol St. Corridor Improvements Project is fully designed and about three months ahead of schedule, with no major problems. It still set to be completed sometime in 2026.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s project manager Valerie Kilduff and city engineer and Planner Dan Aguiar related that information to the City Council on Tuesday.

The only item outstanding on design, said Kilduff, was the landscaping design for the new waterfront corridor.

“Which Dan and I are feverishly trying to work through," said Kilduff. "I am hoping that’s going to be ironed out by the end of the summer. That needs to happen so we can order the landscaping.”

Much of the landscaping could be installed by this time next year, Kilduff said.

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“As far as landscaping, you’re not going to load that place up with cherry blossoms, are you?” said City Council President Joseph Camara.

“It is ornamental trees. There’s a lot of ornamental trees,” said Kilduff.

“There is so much landscaping,” said Aguiar.

“Cherry blossoms make a mess,” said Camara. “They may look pretty, but they make a mess.”

How the land will be used:Fall River pays $361,000 for a Route 79 master plan. The public will be able to weigh in.

Project moving along

A study of the project was completed in 2014. Its goal is to transform Route 79 from an elevated highway into a street-level urban boulevard that connects city neighborhoods to the waterfront while opening up 18 to 20 acres of developable land.

As Aguiar said at Tuesday’s meeting, the public has seen construction work take place on Route 79 along the waterfront since 2023, but in recent months what has rerouted traffic has been mostly underground infrastructure work.

In addition, the elevated bridge along Route 79 and the retaining walls have been completed, noted Aguiar, as well as all the combined sewer overflow tunnels through the corridor.

“There are now a number of items that are now becoming more visible. Again we are seeing much more progress,” said Aguiar.

Kilduff addressed why MassDOT designed the project with an elevated bridge, which has generated a lot of questions from the public. The Route 79 redesign project's chief aim has been to demolish an elevated highway and bring the road to street-level.

“As you know, we left that part of the roadway up because it's considered an evacuation route for you, so it needed to be above the flood zone," Kilduff said. "I get that question a lot: Why did we leave the bridge? Because we needed a way for you to get out of here if there happens to be a very bad storm and flood.”

A councilor’s concern about signage

City Councilor Linda Pereira, who has been critical of insufficient signage directing visitors to Fall River and its attractions, brought up the issue again.

Aguiar explained that interstate highway signage “puts you on the path of where you’re going, not where you’re at.”

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“But what I can offer is that, when the point comes, and we’re getting to that point, where the Route 79 highway gets extinguished and becomes city streets, those types of signage are being included in our redevelopment plan in that area,” said Aguiar.

In a planned landscaped area near the Veterans Memorial Bridge where drivers enter the city, there will be a massive, monument-like granite block with letters welcoming motorists to Fall River, said Aguiar.

“That will be the gateway into this corridor and into this city,” said Aguiar.

Kilduff said there will be two welcome signs, both designed by a landscape architect.

Questions about land opening for redevelopment

The project will open about 19 developable acres and 9 acres of open space, according to the MassDOT website, by reducing travel lanes from four to two in each direction.

Developable land will be located between the northbound and southbound lanes of Davol Street.

Camara asked when the lines will be drawn for developable parcels and when they will be disbursed.

“We are at the point where we are determining where the lines will be for the interior parcels,” said Aguiar.

Aguiar said he believed there will be five lots for development and two for open space.

As far as who will get the parcels and how they will be conveyed, “we are still no further along with that than where we were three years ago,” said Aguiar. “That hasn’t been determined.”

Those conveyances, said Pereira, must be done and developed “with a keen eye, because that’s going to be there for a long time.”

“So we really need to have a lot of public hearings on that, get people in there that do that kind of development,” said Pereira. “Do it right.”