NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — U.S. Sen. Edward Markey pledged his support as the city and its partners embark on an ambitious plan of refashioning the downtown, the Hoosic River, the bike path and the connections to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

 

"A vision without funding, that's an hallucination," said the state's junior senator as he got the rundown on the studies underway during a tour of Mass MoCA on Thursday. 

 

North Adams and MoCA received a $750,000 grant from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act's Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program for a study focused on the deteriorating Veterans Memorial Bridge.

 

The Hoosic River Revival and the city are working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a  $3 million, three-year engineering and feasibility study for the 70-year-old flood control system.

 

And the North Adams Adventure Trail is in the works to run a bike path from Williamstown through the downtown. 

 

"There's a really unique moment in all these projects converging in North Adams and on the Mass MoCA campus and to really think creatively about how to combine those things to create a force multiplier between those different projects  rather than piecemeal," said Andy Schlatter, director of facilities and campus planning, as he pointed out areas of interest on a model of the museum's campus.

 

Steve Jenks, vice chair of the Mass MoCA board, likened it to the Big Dig that transformed the center of Boston into in green space. 

 

"I shudder to think of what Boston would be like had that project not gone through,"  he said. "My hope is that in 10 years, what I hear people saying is I went to North Adams to go out for dinner, and I couldn't find a parking spot, right? That's what I think we want.  ... The concept works, we know it."

 

Mayor Jennifer Macksey and Schlatter pointed out the massive overpass as the group made its way toward Joe's Field. The bridge, built by the state and owned by the city since its completion, needs  an estimated $40 million overhaul. 

 

The Connecting Communities study is looking at how the bridge fits into the city's traffic patterns and how its a barrier between the museum and the downtown. 

 

"We have to think about traffic a different way. Do we beautify it? Do we rebuild it?" said the mayor. "It really is a barrier cutting off one side of the city to the other, but we still have to address how do we flow the traffic so all the projects that we're working on tie so well together?"

 

The senator also viewed several areas of the flood control chute, including the panels that were loose or fallen outside B6: The Robert W. Wilson Building and Willow Dell, and the ruined Beaver dam.

 

"The bigger picture, from a climate resilience standpoint, from a hazard mitigation standpoint for the city of North Adams, to me, it all starts right here," said Kurt Gamari, a member of the HRR board and supervisor of Natural Bridge State Park. "The North Branch here that we're looking at now, runs with a lot of erosive force and flows and volume and a lot of drop. It really creates most of the damage within the city of North Adams tributary."

 

Carole Ridley of Ridley & Associates Inc., project manager for the flood control feasibility study, said a number of organizations — such as Trout Unlimited and the MassWildlife — are working with Beaver Mill owner Eric Rudd on options for the obsolete dam. Gamari said he would like to see more green space and access to the water that would spark more residential development. 

 

The mayor pointed out other old mills that are being refurbished for new uses and how important the flood control is to ensure their continued development. 

 

"The reality is that we have to do something sooner, because we're getting more and more washouts along the way, and especially with climate change," she said. "We're starting to see breakdowns in areas that we've haven't seen before."

 

The flood control chutes were put in place in the 1950s after devastating floods in the 1930s. More recently, the region has been hit by hurricanes and torrential rains — from Tropical Storm Irene that pushed the flood control chutes to their limits to last year's washouts that undermined roads to this summer's thunderstorm that took down trees and power across the region. 

 

In response to questions, Markey said it was critical to ensure that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has the resources available to address the natural disasters, and noted with the devastating flooding in Appalachia, the disasters aren't just along the coastal areas.   

 

And he evinced support for the work being done in North Adams to create a safer, more accessible city. 

 

"We're going to work with the mayor to secure the largest amount of funding possible, and it's high on our priority list," said Markey. "And so we're in constant communication with the Army Corps, and I sit on the committee with jurisdiction over the Army Corps. So I'm going to continue to press, because North Adams is very important to me. Moca is very important, to get the maximum funding possible."