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The project is intended to improve transit through this section of the city.

BMC Area Intersection Reconstruction Delayed Again

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Commissioner of Public Services and Utilities David Turocy has put a halt on a $5.4 million project to improve the traffic areas around Berkshire Medical Center.
 
Turocy said on Tuesday that the design ultimately provided only minor improvements and did not improve transit time. The commissioner would rather delay the project for now in hopes to come up with a better design.
 
"At the end of the day, I have a project that improved access to BMC, reduced some of the traffic through there, added two bike lanes for two blocks, but didn't do much to reduce transit time at a cost of $5 million. As much as I like to make whatever improvements I can, that price tag just seems way out of reach for the benefit we would see," he said.
 
The project has been in the works for more than four years. Back in 2004, the city allocated some $172,000 toward the design work. That work was matched by the state to the tune of $349,997.
 
The concept was to align Charles Street with Springside Avenue, eliminate the fork dividing North and First Streets so all traffic continues down First Street, re-do the Springside Avenue intersection, and change the intersections of Charles and Wahconah. As it is now, there are multiple lights on North Street in close proximity.
 
In 2016, the design still hadn't progressed enough to use that year's federal funding allocation through the local Metropolitan Planning Organization, and the cost estimates then had increased to close to $7.3 million. It was delayed until 2018.
 
And as of Tuesday, that project is on hold indefinitely.
 
"We were not able to come up with what I felt was a worthwhile design. We have some possibilities that I am continuing to look at so we are keeping on it, but there is no way we'd be ready for next year," Turocy told the MPO.
 
He cited difficulties with the historic registrar and the need for land takings that weren't supported in Boston as adding to the complication.
 
"The area around BMC is very constrained and restricted. There just isn't a lot of geography to make improvements. The idea of trying to decrease transit time through there was very difficult," he said.
 
Turocy said he met with Massachusetts Department of Transportation officials, who provided new ideas.  But he said the absolute earliest he expects construction to be able to move forward is 2020.
 
The Metropolitan Planning Organization has just started the process of earmarking projects for the period between 2019 and 2023. That project, estimated at $5.4 million, is penciled in for construction in the federal fiscal 2021.

Tags: BMC,   intersection,   MPO,   traffic,   

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EPA Lays Out Draft Plan for PCB Remediation in Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Ward 4 Councilor James Conant requested the meeting be held at Herberg Middle School as his ward will be most affected. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric have a preliminary plan to remediate polychlorinated biphenyls from the city's Rest of River stretch by 2032.

"We're going to implement the remedy, move on, and in five years we can be done with the majority of the issues in Pittsfield," Project Manager Dean Tagliaferro said during a hearing on Wednesday.

"The goal is to restore the (Housatonic) river, make the river an asset. Right now, it's a liability."

The PCB-polluted "Rest of River" stretches nearly 125 miles from the confluence of the East and West Branches of the river in Pittsfield to the end of Reach 16 just before Long Island Sound in Connecticut.  The city's five-mile reach, 5A, goes from the confluence to the wastewater treatment plant and includes river channels, banks, backwaters, and 325 acres of floodplains.

The event was held at Herberg Middle School, as Ward 4 Councilor James Conant wanted to ensure that the residents who will be most affected by the cleanup didn't have to travel far.

Conant emphasized that "nothing is set in actual stone" and it will not be solidified for many months.

In February 2020, the Rest of River settlement agreement that outlines the continued cleanup was signed by the U.S. EPA, GE, the state, the city of Pittsfield, the towns of Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield, and other interested parties.

Remediation has been in progress since the 1970s, including 27 cleanups. The remedy settled in 2020 includes the removal of one million cubic yards of contaminated sediment and floodplain soils, an 89 percent reduction of downstream transport of PCBs, an upland disposal facility located near Woods Pond (which has been contested by Southern Berkshire residents) as well as offsite disposal, and the removal of two dams.

The estimated cost is about $576 million and will take about 13 years to complete once construction begins.

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