MA Department Moves Ahead with New Fire Station
By Rich Harbert
Source Wicked Local South/Mariner, Marshfield, Mass.
PLYMOUTH – Construction of the new North Plymouth fire station is about to begin.
The town awarded a construction contract for the project this week to P & P General Contractors of Charlton. P & P was the low bidder among 11 companies seeking the work with a bid of $5,163,777.
The new station will be built at 15 Hedge Road, not far from the existing North Plymouth station at the corner of Standish Avenue and Spooner and South Spooner streets. Fire Chief Ed Bradley said he expects construction will begin in May.
The new three-bay station will replace the oldest station in town. The original North Station cost $12,000 when it was built 107 years ago.
The brick building had two bays and more than enough room for the horse-drawn chemical and ladder engines that volunteers of the day used to fight fires.
In recent years, the Fire Department has had to remove trim from the sides of the bay doors and modify mirrors on engines to fit the trucks into the station.
The town bought the 2.25-acre Hedge Road site in 2017 for $350,000 from the heirs of Paul Sgarzi. Town Meeting later approved spending $7.5 million to build the new station.
Bradley said the bids were highly competitive, with three contractors within 3 percent of the low bid for the project. The winning bid includes options for radiant heat, epoxy covered floors and a fuel depot and will still be about $800,000 below initial estimates.
P & P General Contractors is currently finishing a fire station in Dudley.
The design in North Plymouth calls for a two-story, three-bay station with living quarters for firefighters, a hazardous materials room for washing equipment, and a utility room with a compressor for filling air packs.
Bradley said the engine and brushbreaker housed at the existing station would move into the new station. The department would also locate utility trailers at the station as well as a ladder truck currently being built in Florida. An ambulance may be located there too.
The plans call for a brick façade, in keeping with architecture of buildings in nearby Cordage Park. Commercial Masonry, a company based in the Plymouth Industrial Park, won the bid for the brickwork.
The contract calls for construction to be completed within a year, but Bradley said he expects the work to be finished sooner.
The existing station will be sold. Bradley said the town has already received several inquiries about purchasing the building.
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