On Monday, August 12, 2024, town and state officials—including representatives from the Capitol Region Council of Governments and Selectman Bill Morrison and Rick Hartenstein—along with a couple of curious neighbors, turned out to celebrate the reopening of Furnace Avenue.
Staffordites have been detouring around a section of the road from just north of Edgewood Street to County Road since June 14. Construction started even before that, as Spazzarini Construction received notice to proceed back on June 26, 2023. The project, however, has been in the making for more than a decade, as DPW Director Devin Cowperthwaite said before the ribbon cutting that officially reopened the road to through traffic.
A $4.7 million Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program (LOTCIP) grant paid for the widening and realigning of a treacherous portion of the road. According to Cowperthwaite, the project came in ahead of schedule. Spazzarini Construction, says Cowperthwaite, "worked through the winter to get this project completed ahead of schedule." The contract stipulated that the project had to be completed by April 18, 2025, or sooner.