Gov. Deval Patrick on Tuesday announced $1.19 million in additional funding for the city of New Bedford to help support the Acushnet Avenue Improvement Project. The funding will come from the MassWorks Infrastructure Grant Program.
"Growth requires investment, and investments like these to support housing and business development will help catalyze growth in New Bedford and beyond," Patrick said in a statement. "If we want to expand opportunity in our commonwealth, this is what government must do and do well."
In 2011, the city received a $3.2 million grant through the MassWorks program to support the Acushnet Avenue Improvement Project. The improvements included environmentally friendly streetscaping, pedestrian scale lighting, attractive seating and planting areas, wider sidewalks, bicycle accommodations, safer and more efficient intersections and new fencing and plantings.
The public infrastructure project is part of an overall effort to spur private investment and development in New Bedford’s Acushnet Avenue International Marketplace District. The marketplace serves as a gateway to the businesses along the Acushnet Avenue corridor and also to the historic mill and river walk district of the Upper Harbor and the Riverside Landing development site.
The city intends to use the latest funds to catalyze local investment, support existing businesses along the commercial corridor and foster new business growth in the district. The funds will support street and sidewalk replacements, lighting, trees and seating, bike racks and bus shelters. It will also support the redevelopment of a long-vacant, city-owned parking lot into a pocket park.
The MassWorks Infrastructure Program is the consolidation of six capital budget programs, giving communities a single entry point and one set of requirements for state public infrastructure grants. The consolidation has improved efficiencies and streamlined the process, increased access for municipalities of all sizes, and enhanced state-regional-local partnerships around economic development and housing projects.
