New Highway Barn expects completion in March

Here are some of the things that can be done in the new Highway Barn: Enter the garage while driving a Mac truck with the plow attached, Park and store all of the town’s trucks and DPW equipment. Maintain each and every vehicle owned by the town, including the heaviest and largest of the fire trucks.

You cannot get claustrophobic in the giant $13.8 million building now nearing completion off Westboro Road, right beside the Mass. Pike. Unlike the crumbling structure on Upton Street. there’s room to move, space to grow, and plow drivers taking breaks during 48 hour snowstorms have locker rooms, showers, and a break room to make themselves feel human.

“This was designed to fit all of our equipment at once,” said Andy Deschenes, owner operations manager on the project, during a recent tour of the new facility for hard-hatted Select Board members.

“Our trucks are going to last so much longer,” added Kevin Gallagher, the town’s highway superintendent. “Right now we have to leave some of them out in the cold, and that’s just not good long-term.”

Talk of a new highway barn has been happening for more than a decade. It waited on the wish list as the town built a new police station, fire department, high school and, just recently, the new library. Completion is expected in March, with move-in expected in May, after the New England sloppy season has ended.

Other things that will happen in the complex:

• It’s little-known that the Highway Department makes all the town’s signs. The barn will have a designated area for that shop
• There’s an area for smaller town-owned equipment, such as chainsaws, lawn mowers
• A separate structure will hold the town’s supply of salt and sand (and yes, the town will still provide both to homeowners)
• Recycling will be moved to the property
• The gas and diesel pumps now located at the old police station will be relocated.