Although the public outreach meeting for the Ayer Road reconstruction project has been postponed to a date to be determined, the delay has not affected its funding status. The meeting was most recently scheduled to be held April 15 and was originally scheduled for March 25, before the COVID-19 outbreak disrupted public gatherings.
Harvard plans to fund the project using federal money from the TIP (Transportation Improvement Program). The Ayer Road reconstruction project now appears in the Montachusett region’s fiscal 2020-2024 appendix. It has the ninth highest priority score of the 24 proposed projects during that time frame, and the fourth highest score of the 12 in the appendix. According to Johnathan Rockwell, director of transportation services at TEC, the engineering firm Harvard has hired for the project, the project’s listing indicates that it is a high regional priority for the time frame, but that it has not yet been scheduled for a specific year.
When asked whether the coronavirus outbreak would delay TIP funding for the project, Rockwell stated, “To my knowledge, the current COVID-19 situation has not yet directly impacted the TIP schedule.”
