Rutherford H. Platt: A preview of Main Street project?

Published: 09-01-2023 6:02 AM

A preview of Main Street project?

Anyone who still supports the city and state’s multiyear year plan to reconstruct Northampton’s Main Street (“Picture Main Street”) should ruin their day by using Damon Road to get to I-91 or Coolidge Bridge.

This Tuesday morning around 9:30, I was a prisoner on Damon for perhaps 10 minutes, an unwilling spectator to an endless procession of cars and trucks tiptoeing across bare ground amid a morass of concrete barriers, orange cones, and thunderous construction equipment.

After months of no visible progress, suddenly the state’s highway contractors tackled both replacing the columns holding I-91 and repaving part of Damon Road at the same time.

And with exquisitely bad timing, it happened to be the first week of school and moving-in week for the area’s colleges.

I saw no signs warning of this disruption nor any announcement in this newspaper. The public be damned!

So do you still want three or more years of the same on Main Street to install a half-mile bicycle speedway?

Rutherford H. Platt

Florence

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