"It's the gateway to the development," Deborah Burke, spokesperson for Telecom City, tells GlobeSt.com. "This is a major step forward for the project." The contract involves reconstructing Commercial Street in Malden and Corporation Way in Medford, the road that run parallel to the site and parallel to the MBTA tracks that lead to the nearby Wellington Station. Burke says that the road will be widened to one and a half lanes with a median strip down the center. Sidewalks and street lights will be added and a curve in the road will be straightened. Burke notes that some of the property taken to begin the first phase of Telecom City included land to allow this road to be widened and straightened.

The contract was awarded to The Middlesex Corporation of Littleton and is worth $7.1 million. The funds for the contract will be paid from a bond issued in 1994.

Burke points out that this is the first major onsite physical development activity for Telecom City. A number of buildings have been demolished as part of Phase one and land has been cleared but the project's developer, New York-based Preotle Lane and Associates, is still in the permitting process. Burke says that it is anticipated that construction on the first phase will begin at the start of 2003. The first phase involves developing four four-story buildings of 110,000 sf each on the 25 acres in this city. The next phases involve 25 acres in Malden and 150 acres in Everett.