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The lettering on the front of the building was installed on Monday.
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Construction Wrapping Up at New Taconic High School

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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A new handicapped accessible walkway from the school to the track was paved.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — For all intents and purposes, the new Taconic High School building is done.
 
A temporary certificate of occupancy has been granted and administrative staff has been working out of the new $120.8 million building.
 
The teacher's supplies sit in boxes in each room and next week they'll start unpacking and setting up the classrooms. The staff members had been asked to pack up before they left for the summer and a moving company transported the boxes from the old classrooms to the new.
 
The building has been under construction for two years, kicking off in the spring of 2016, and this October a ribbon cutting ceremony is planned.
 
However, there is still some work being done on site. The auditorium and the shops are still considered construction zones. In the auditorium, the final bit of wiring is being done along with a back wall being installed. Soon, seats and aisle carpet will be laid. 
 
Electricians have been putting in extra days in this final month before school starts to finish up in the shops and the work left in some classes. In a week or so, the plants for the green roofs are expected to be placed.
 
There is still furniture and equipment expected to arrive later this week and into next week. The heating and cooling system is expected to be commissioned soon and health and building inspectors are expected to give their approval on the culinary kitchen.
 
Once the final pieces of the project are done in time for the students to arrive in late August, there will still be some punch list items and cleaning to be done. 
 
Meanwhile, deconstruction of the original Taconic has already begun. A fence surrounds the building and inside asbestos abatement and some internal demolition underway. Once that building is demolished, workers will install playing fields in that space. 
 
At the new Taconic, the landscaping around the building and parking lots are just about complete. That includes a new walkway to the track. In a separate project, the track and fencing are expected to be repairs and a community effort including donated labor and material from the construction companies working on the project is going to install new dugouts for the baseball field.
 
The new 246,520 square feet building, set to accommodate 920 students, broke ground in 2016. The site had been a small parking lot and rocky terrain. It has since been transformed into a new school. Skanska USA, architects Drummey Rosane Anderson Inc., and Gilbane Construction have been overseeing the work.
 
iBerkshires has been regularly following the project. Check out our photos from a number of tours of the site below. The newest photos are first and then the rest are chronological. 


Tags: school project,   Taconic High,   Taconic school project,   

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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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