East Street Reconstruction Starting This Spring

Improvements include grass medians, shared-use paths and sidewalks and a turning lane. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — East Street is planned to get more bumpy as construction looms for the street's redevelopment project.

The state Department of Transportation project will widen the corridor from the intersection of East and Lyman Street to the intersection of East and Merrill Road, including landscaping and pedestrian amenities. It aims to improve safety, accessibility, and aesthetics with minimum environmental impacts.

The $10 million project began with underground utility work that took longer than anticipated because of unexpected road bumps, such as an unknown abandoned sewer line and the removal of contaminated material. 

J.H. Maxymillian plans to start work on the road in late March or early April. At the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority's meeting last week, MassDOT's resident engineer Kevin Moriarty explained the process of the reconstruction. 

The contract with Maxymillian is through August 2028.

The entire drainage system is getting replaced and the road will begin to be widened with construction performing a full-depth excavation of the road.

Utility companies are working on transferring overhead lines to the other side of the road. 

Moriarty explained how the road's will be changed.

"From Lyman Street to about Silver Lake, it's going to be a two-way, left-turn lane with a travel lane in each direction, two bike lanes, two sidewalks," Moriarty said. "Then from Silver Lake all the way through the project limits here at East and Merrill, there'll be a raised grass median, two travel lanes, two bike lanes, two sidewalks until you get here to Woodlawn. At Woodlawn Ave, on PEDA's side of the property, there'll be a 10-foot wide shared-use path that pretty much parallels the existing big parking lot over here."

Once construction starts, the plan is to keep the flow of traffic going.

"The goal is to always keep two lanes of traffic, or at least maintain traffic. If we have to shut down a part of the lane, it'll be controlled with detail officers doing or flaggers doing an alternating pattern," he said.

The pedestrian signal at Lyman Street will be moved to the east side of the street, Silver Lake Boulevard will be getting a pedestrian signal, and Woodlawn Avenue and eastern Merrill Road will be getting pedestrian and vehicle signal replacements.

"I think it's just going to be a huge, improvement. It's a lot of work, but to be able to market the William Stanley Park and give it the sort of access and that it deserves in order to improve the entire surrounding area of the park is going to be well worth the suffering," said Linda Clairmont.

Berkshire Concrete Appeals Fines; Residents Demand More Aggressive Actions

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
01:17PM / Monday, April 13, 2026

DALTON, Mass. — The snow has melted and the air is warming — a time when residents open their windows and step outside to enjoy the sun. But for those living near Berkshire Concrete's unauthorized dig site, they say the warmer weather means something else: more sand.

 

Less than a month into spring, the town received its first dust complaint after an overnight storm on March 31 blew sand and fine dust onto Raymond Drive, sending air monitoring data off the charts.

 

"The piles and vast open areas are once again exposed after the snow melt, and it is definitely blowing right into our neighborhoods," said Clean Air Coalition member Lisa Pugh. 

 

"We now have concrete data to prove this. The delays are continuing and the neighborhood continues to be negatively affected.

 

During the storm, the air monitors, placed around town showed particulate matter numbers recorded at over 5,000 units, and at times reaching 10,000. 

 

"These high readings continued for hours," she said. 

 

Levels above 155 are considered unhealthy and according to the Environmental Protection Agency these numbers are considered an immediate public health emergency, Pugh said.