City of Pittsfield Presents Bicycle Facilities Master Plan

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City of Pittsfield has completed its Bicycle Facilities Master Plan, which aims to establish a safe, comfortable and connected bicycle network throughout the city that is accessible to people of all ages and abilities.
 
A final presentation of the plan will be shared via a presentation on Zoom at 6 p.m. on Monday, July 19.
 
A link to the plan through the project website is available on the homepage of the city's website, www.cityofpittsfield.org, under "Hot Topics."
 
"This project has resulted in the identification of short-term and long-term improvements that will link the city's neighborhoods and downtown, as well as needed accessory infrastructure, such as storage and maintenance," said City Planner CJ Hoss. "While the project included two formal public meetings, the development of this master plan also included stakeholder meetings, input from a community survey this past spring, as well as updates through an interactive mapping tool on the project website."
 
The Bicycle Facilities Master Plan provides the city with a long-term citywide vision for a bicycle network and grow beyond a ‘one-street-at-a-time' planning approach, Hoss said. The city retained Kittleson and Associations Inc., a nationally renowned transportation focused consulting firm, to lead this project.
 
The plan was built around the following project goals and objectives:
  • Develop a citywide plan based on transportation, land use, and demographic factors;
  • Prioritize plan recommendations for full-scale build out over time;
  • Recommend bicycle facility types for preferred and alternative routes in the network; and
  • Identify complementary bicycle facilities such as bicycle racks, maintenance stations, and bike-share stations.
Beginning in the early 2000s, the city started to design and implement bicycle facilities with the redesign of North Street to include sharrows (a shared lane marking) and dedicated bike lanes.
 
This effort was followed by the reconstruction of Elm Street with dedicated bike lanes and sharrows. More recently, the city has adopted a Complete Streets policy, is commencing a Tyler Street Streetscape construction project which will add bicycle facilities, and is currently making improvements to North Street to implement a continuous dedicated downtown buffered bike lane with educational signage and materials.
 
Those wishing to participate may do so via Zoom. The meeting ID is 83323710276 or https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83323710276. The meeting will also be broadcast via PCTV.
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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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