Southampton looks to move on bike path, East Street projects

By CAITLIN ASHWORTH

@kate_ashworth

Published: 07-24-2017 2:29 PM

SOUTHAMPTON — The town is growing, says Select Board chairman and lifetime resident Charlie Kaniecki. A baseball field draws people into the area and residences are popping up.

Kanieck says it’s time for the rest of Southampton to catch up.

Projects that have been pushed aside for years are now getting serious consideration. The Southampton Greenway project of converting old railbed into a bike path has been put on the “back burner” for 20 years, Kaniecki said.

The bike path is closer to becoming a reality and the town is seeking the funding to restructure East Street and rebuild the bridge over the Manhan River.

The Southampton Greenway would connect with the Manhan Rail Trail in Easthampton. Contracts have been signed with engineering company Tighe & Bond to conduct an environmental site assessment and to review bridges and culverts along the railway.

The town is still in the process of negotiating with Pinsly Railroad Co., operator of the Pioneer Valley Railroad, according to chairman of the Greenway Committee Michael Buehler. He said the committee is looking into funding options to convert the old railbed into a bike trail.

A feasibility study was completed in 2011 that considered options from a gravel trail costing $900,000 to a $2.6 million path that would include parallel paved and unpaved routes.

With the Labrie Field, an official Little League baseball field on Strong Road, drawing more people into the town and the Greenway project in the works, which will intersect with East Street, traffic for the two destinations will increase on East Street.

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East Street lacks a full sidewalk and a shoulder for bikes. The roughly 90-year-old bridge over the Manhan River is narrow, bottlenecking traffic. The bridge has no sidewalk and the railing is deteriorating.

“It doesn’t look like it’s part of the town,” Kaniecki said about the East Street corridor.

On Friday, Kaniecki gave a tour of East Street road and bridge to Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Executive Director Timothy Brennan and principal planner/transportation manager Dana Roscoe.

The town is looking at a roughly $4 million project, and plans to seek around $3 million for East Street through Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) funding and about $1 million to rebuild the bridge through the MassWorks Infrastructure Program.

The bridge on East Street is not eligible for TIP funding because it is not considered structurally deficient. The town considered rebuilding the bridge in 2009, but it had not deteriorated enough, according to Kaniecki.

Kaniecki said the town plans to turn in the application for the MassWorks grant in August and construction could begin next summer.

For TIP funding, the Pioneer Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization receives about $20 million annually to allocate to transportation projects that are eligible for federal funding, PVPC public affairs manager Patrick Beaudry said in a previous interview.

Brennan said there are hundreds and hundreds of worthy projects that compete for TIP funding. And competition is extraordinarily high, he said.

“We work in every single city and town in Hampshire and Hampden county. We see this project in every single municipality,” Roscoe said. “You’re not unique.”

Projects are ranked on evaluation criteria such as safety, traffic volume and if the design has a complete streets element.

But Roscoe said the way to get the project moving is to get to a 100 percent design. Kaniecki said engineers are working on the first phase of the East Street design, which is from Route 10 to Strong Road. The second phase of the project goes from Strong Road to County Road.

“I’ve been in town all my life and I can’t remember that street being rebuilt,” Kaniecki said. “It needs to get on that list.”

The town doesn’t have the resources to fund the project on its own, Kaniecki said. “We just don’t have that kind of money,” he said.

“The main handicap for the town is that there is very little commercial business and industry, and so the funds for any purpose come right out of the residential taxpayer,” interim Town Administrator Robert Markel said. “That’s a major limitation.”

Kaniecki said now is the time to act.

“If we don’t start addressing this within the next couple of years,” Kaniecki said, “we’re going to have a calamity out there.”

Caitlin Ashworth can be reached at cashworth@gazettenet.com.

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