MassDOT: South County Construction Operations

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is announcing it will be performing milling, paving, bridge repairs, and bridge painting on I-90 eastbound and westbound in Stockbridge, West Stockbridge, and Becket.

Work will take place between Sunday, June 15, and Thursday, June 19, during both nighttime and daytime hours.

Stockbridge/West Stockbridge:

• Milling and paving operations will take place on I-90 westbound between mile markers 8.2 and 3.5 from Monday night, June 16, through Thursday night, June 19, from 7:00 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. the following morning. Lane closures will be in place.

West Stockbridge:

• Bridge work will take place on I-90 eastbound and westbound at mile marker 1.3 on Monday night, June 16, and Tuesday night, June 17, from 7:00 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. the following morning. Lane closures will be in place.

Becket:

• Bridge painting will take place on I-90 eastbound and westbound at mile marker 18.4 from Sunday night, June 15, through Thursday night, June 19, from 7:00 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. the following morning. Lane closures will be in place in both directions.
• Bridge repair work will take place on I-90 westbound at mile marker 17.6 in Becket on Monday, June 16, from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Lane closures will be in place during daytime hours.

Appropriate signage and law enforcement details will be in place to guide drivers through the work area.

Drivers traveling through the area should expect delays, reduce speed, and use caution.

All scheduled work is weather dependent and subject to change without notice.

Great Barrington Celebrates Unveiling of Du Bois Sculpture

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
08:10AM / Sunday, July 20, 2025

Sculpture project co-Chairs Ari Zorn, left, and Julie Michaels thank the many people and organizations that made the day happen. 

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The town celebrated the unveiling of the W.E.B Du Bois monument at Mason Library on Saturday with speakers, singers, dancers and ice cream. 

 

The bronze sculpture, created by artist Richard Blake, sits on a curving marble bench with hand outstretched and open, welcoming passers-by to stop. 

 

"Du Bois meets us not with a sword ... not with a fist, not with a flag. He meets us with an open hand," said Imari Paris Jeffries, president and CEO of Embrace Boston, a partner in the sculpture project. "An open hand is never just a hand. It is a symbol, a language, a refusal. It is peace, the kind does not that does not forget violence, but refuses to replicate it. It is a welcome. It is a gesture that says you belong here, even in a nation that tried to make you feel otherwise."

 

Contrast that, he said, with 2,000 monuments, schools, roads, lakes, rivers and military bases named for Confederate leaders "planted after Reconstruction in the hard soil of Jim Crow and then the aftermath of Brown v. Board [of Education]. They were constructed not to grieve the dead, but to police the living."

 

The life-size statue of the civil rights leader, author, and sociologist offers something far different, Paris Jeffries said: "It is an offering of memory and of intellect, of unyielding belief that Black life contains multitudes, a monument to love."

 

The sculpture now joins that in Sheffield of Elizabeth Freeman, whose suit for freedom lead to the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts, in marking local Black history. 

 

Its creation was years in the making through the efforts of a broad coalition of local and state partners. Julie Michaels, co-chair of the sculpture project, ticked off all the people and organizations who when asked to make the project a reality said, "Nobody said no, nobody said next week, nobody said tomorrow. They all said, 'yes, yes, yes.' And that is so important to us."