Big changes are coming to Route 79 in Fall River. Here's what to expect.

FALL RIVER — The much-anticipated $135 million Route 79 and Davol Street Corridor Improvement project is officially underway with a ceremonial groundbreaking led by outgoing Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and other state and local leaders at the City Pier on Wednesday.

The MassDOT project will transform the Route 79 corridor from Central Street near Battleship Cove to the Veterans Memorial Bridge by demolishing the four-lane elevated portion of the waterfront highway and creating an urban boulevard.

“There are actually two goals to the project,” said Lenny Velichansky, vice president and project manager of the engineering and design consulting firm, TransSystems. “One is to create land for economic development and the other is to reconnect the neighborhoods to the waterfront.”

In fact, when the project is completed, which is anticipated at the end of 2026, there will be up to 19 acres of land that will be available for commercial redevelopment and green space.

Velichansky said the project will also open up multi-modal connections on Route 79, like sidewalks, pedestrian crossings and bike paths.

Preliminary design of the Route 79 project is complete, and Velichansky said the design/build phase is moving forward, which is final design and construction.

D. W. White Construction has been selected by MassDOT as the lead builder of the project along with contractor SPS New England.

‘Truly transformational’

The Baker/Polito administration has been credited by the local delegation and Mayor Paul Coogan for having delivered both the Route 79 project and the South Coast Rail project to the city and the SouthCoast.

Open for bidding:3 firms invited to make Route 79 design presentations

Polito also recognized the local state delegation, the city administration and the Bristol County Economic Development Consultants for keeping their administration on track with seeing the two projects become realities.

Changing landscape:The Route 79/Davol Street rebuild is starting soon. It will change Fall River's waterfront.

“Yes, you have inspired us to be true to our promises and this is one of the promises made that we would see this project come through,” said Polito. “This is going to happen now."

Polito called the project “truly transformational” for the city to connect Route 79 and Davol Street to the city and along the whole waterfront right to Battleship Cove and to the Braga Bridge.

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“Today is a bellwether day for Fall River,” said an emotional Rep. Carole Fiola. “This groundbreaking signifies decades of work by dozens of people throughout the last 20 plus years.”

“It’s a big deal. I’m very happy and it's come to fruition just like the train” said BCEDC President Frank Marchione.

After the speeches and the requisite groundbreaking ceremony, Marchione and BCEDC Vice President Ken Fiola discussed the years the project was in the making, starting with a study sponsored by the economic development agency back in 1999 on the revitalization of the city’s waterfront.

“When we first came out with all of the recommendations the consultants said it was going to take us 20 years to implement these things, and I laughed and said we can get it done in five years, ten tops,” said Fiola. “And here we are 20 years later. It was a process, securing money and things you didn’t anticipate. But we stayed the course and were persistent.”

Land will be available for redevelopment

While Mark Twain aptly noted, they aren’t making land anymore, MassDOT and the state have designed a new Route 79 plan that will open up about 19 acres of developable land that hasn’t existed since the construction of the highway.

But it's apparently still early to know how and by whom the land will be developed.

Senator Michael Rodrigues, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, explained that the acreage that will come from the massive project is owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

“So, they will have to go through a process to dispose public property. So, it will be a public bidding process and it will have to come through the Legislature, because we take land transfers very seriously. It will be a process,” said Rodrigues.

Regarding the city’s input on how the land will be developed, Rodrigues said that the Fall River Redevelopment Authority will certainly bid on the land.

“We will make sure the Commonwealth gets full and fair market value for the property to protect to protect the taxpayers,” said Rodrigues.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Multi-million dollar MassDOT project on Route 79 underway