NORTHAMPTON — When Brittany McGovern got caught driving in a heavy rainstorm earlier this month, she began to head back toward her home on Damon Road — only to find she had no means of entering.
McGovern lives at River Run, a condominium complex tucked behind a small shopping plaza with a one-lane road that connects the complex to Damon, the heavily trafficked thoroughfare that the state Department of Transportation has been widening and rebuilding as part of an extensive multimillion-dollar project that began in the summer of 2020.
When McGovern arrived at Damon Road however, she saw that the section near the her condo complex had been closed off due to the poor condition of the street, consisting mostly of dirt and gravel during ongoing construction. With the road closed and no one there to guide traffic, McGovern had no way to get home.
“I went to the police department to see how I could get home,” McGovern said Tuesday outside of her condo. “About 45 minutes to an hour later, they were able to let me through.”
The incident is just one such example of what several residents of the complex say is a continuous disruption to their daily lives caused by the ongoing construction on Damon Road, which shows no signs of nearing completion some three years after it began. Residents say the condition of the road in its current state has caused delays in leaving and entering the complex, safety concerns and damage to some of their vehicles.
“It’s a main road, and the end product will be worth it, but the process has been frustrating,” said McGovern. “And the potholes have been wreaking havoc on my car.”
Running between King and Bridge streets near Interstate 91, Damon Road is for many people an essential artery of the city that connects it to neighboring Hadley and Amherst and provides access to Bridge Road on the way to Leeds, to downtown Northampton on King Street and to Hatfield and communities north on North King Street.
According to MassDOT data, some 11,245 vehicles used Damon Road per day in 2022, the most recent year for which data are available. That puts it within the top 20 busiest non-interstate areas in the city, with the nearby section of Route 9 over the Connecticut River via the Coolidge Bridge having the highest average daily traffic volume of anywhere in Northampton that year, excluding interstate routes.
Rose Egan, who also lives at River Run, says she likes to take her daughter to bike to the nearby rail trail off Damon Road, but there are significant safety risks when traveling the road to the trail.
“I have to physically dismount my bike at certain points, and walk through all the rubble and dirt,” she said. “When is it going to be safe?”
Conditions of the road can be particularly poor during rainy weather, which has been frequent in recent weeks. Heavy rains over the past summer have also led to closures of Damon Road due to flooding.
“There are times when the road is so bad that it’s essentially impassable, but of course we have no choice. In particular, after rain,” said River Run resident Christina Johnson. “Unfortunately it rains almost every weekend so the road stays a wreck for days when that happens.”
Johnson also said the construction interfered with her daily commute to work.
“I have waited up to 15 minutes in the morning to be let out of the driveway of River Run,” she said. “My commute has at least doubled. Double the time has to be allowed when going anywhere.”
Elizabeth Cafarella, another resident of the complex, also said the condition of the road often makes her late for work.
“I work somewhere that doesn’t mind if I’m five minutes late, but other people aren’t as fortunate,” she said. “I’m tired of it. Every morning you hear trucks and construction going on.”
Adding to the frustration is a delay in when the $9.5 million project, which stretches over 1.1 miles of Damon Road and includes repair of its underground drainage systems, will be completed.
Originally, MassDOT estimated the project would be completed in July of this year. Now, the agency estimates completion in July 2024. According to a MassDOT spokesperson, the delay is due to third-party utilities not relocating cables in a timely fashion, as well as delays in replacing the road’s railroad crossing.
“We have been dealing with this for years now,” Johnson said. “So we’ve been very patient.”
Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.