MEMORANDUM |
To:
Michael Trepanier
Project Manager
Date:
October 1, 2015
From:
Nick Gross
Howard Stein Hudson
HSH Project No.:
2013061.15
Subject:
MassDOT Highway Division
Route 9 Corridor Improvement Project - Hadley
Public Information Meeting
Meeting Notes of September 29, 2015
Overview
On September 29, 2015 members of the Route 9 Corridor Project team and MassDOT staff associated with
the job held the first public information meeting for the project. The meeting was held at Hopkins
Academy and attending by over 45 community members. The meeting was advertised in Daily Hampshire
Gazette and on the Town of Hadley’s website, Hadley public access television, UMass transportation
services, and on Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA) B43 buses. The purpose of the meeting was to
introduce the project to the communities of Hadley, Amherst, Northampton, and other surrounding towns.
The meeting also provided residents and other stakeholders the opportunity to provide comments and ask
questions of the project development process for the project.
Generally speaking, the tone of the meeting was very positive with many community members thanking
MassDOT for their willingness to provide a public information meeting at the earliest stage of the project
development process. The meeting was kicked off by MassDOT’s project manager, Michael Trepanier who
provided a brief introduction of MassDOT’s role and overview of the evening’s agenda. The consultant
team of Greenman-Petersen, Inc. (GPI) and Howard Stein Hudson followed with individual introductions of
their roles and expertise. The Route 9 Corridor Improvement Project is the result of the recommendations
put forth by the Connecticut River Crossing Transportation Study (CRCTS) which was completed in 2004.
The bulk of the meeting was led by project manager Michael Trepanier who explained that MassDOT will
be taking a two-tiered approach to improve safety for all modes of transportation and relieve congestion
along Route 9. The first tier will be to take a context sensitive approach in widening the two-lane
“bottleneck” section of Route 9 without diminishing the character of Hadley. The second tier will be to
conduct a long-term transit mobility study to work through an alternatives analysis with the goal to
improve PVTA B43 service resembling a bus rapid transit (BRT) lite approach. Throughout this two-tier
approach, MassDOT will have ongoing coordination with key stakeholders while hosting multiple public
information meetings to gain a reasonable consensus on a preferred alternative.
11 Beacon Street, Suite 1010 | Boston, Massachusetts 02108 | 617.482.7080
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The meeting summarized herein wrapped up with a discussion of questions, answers, and general
comments. It was voiced by multiple attendees and agreed upon by the project team that the a lack of
bicycle and pedestrian accommodations would need to be improved specifically along Route 9 near the
Hampshire Mall with connections to the Norwottock Rail Trail. Significant importance was placed on the
context sensitivity of Hadley’s municipal buildings adjacent to Route 9 in relation to the widening. It was
explained by MassDOT that that the team will go through a comprehensive modeling and traffic analysis
to inform how the cross section alternatives are developed while preserving the historic and municipal
buildings in Hadley Town Center.
Additional comments covered ADA accessibility in relation to the B43, ways to address congestion outside
of the project area, consideration of snowmobile crossings, safety relating to left-turn movements at West
Street, an increase of usage at the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, and sidewalk
maintenance during inclement weather. MassDOT and the project team will work to progress the transit
mobility and alternatives analysis study while incorporating the comments received from this meeting.
Detailed Meeting Minutes1
C: Michael Trepanier (MT): Good evening everyone and welcome to the initial public information meeting
for the Route 9 Corridor Improvement Project in Hadley. My name is Michael Trepanier and I am the
project manager with MassDOT’s highway division. Tonight you’ll be introduced to the consultant
team who will be working on this project. We will provide you with an overview of what has been done,
as well as the previous planning effort, and where we are now. I’ll then talk about what we plan on
doing as part of this project, describe some of the existing conditions, and discuss our anticipated
project goals. We’ll wrap up with a quick discussion of our public outreach program and what you can
expect from us next. Our plan tonight is to limit the amount of time we talk at you to allow more time
for us to listen.
Route 9 is a state highway that MassDOT has jurisdiction over. We are responsible for operating,
maintaining, and overseeing any capital improvements that would be constructed along the corridor.
These efforts would be accomplished in partnership with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
(PVPC) who administers and programs federal aid for the region. Tonight I am joined by team
members from Greenman-Pedersen Inc. (GPI) and Howard Stein Hudson. I’m going to have them come
up to the microphone now to introduce themselves.
Herein “C” stands for comment, “Q” for question and “A” for answer. For a list of attendees, please see
Appendix 1. For copies of meeting flipcharts, please see Appendix 2.
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Consultant Team Introductions
C: Nick Gross (NG): Good evening everyone. My name is Nick Gross and I am with Howard Stein
Hudson. I’d like to thank you all for coming out tonight. I am looking very forward in starting this
public process with you. I am an UMass alumni and former resident of Route 9 in Amherst so I can
assure you I know this area quite well. I will be contributing to the team by providing public
involvement services and preliminary planning for bicycle accommodations. I would like to remind you
all to sign-in if you would like to be added to the projects stakeholder database. Thank you.
C: John Osorio (JO): Good evening. My name is John Osorio. I am the project manager from GPI. I will
be serving at the lead civil engineer for the Route 9 Corridor Improvement Project and I am looking
forward to getting to know the community as well as listening to your concerns. Thank you.
C: Jason DeGray (JD): Hello. My name is Jason DeGray. I am also a project manager with GPI. My role
will be to see the project through the earlier project development stage in order to conceptualize what it
is we are seeking to accomplish. I am looking forward to working through the consensus building
process with all of the stakeholders. I was born and raised in the Pioneer Valley so this is home to me
as well. Thank you.
C: Carolyn Radisch (CR): Good evening everyone, my name is Carolyn Radisch. I am a transportation
and urban planner with GPI. I am looking forward to working with the communities along the Route 9
corridor to build a great project. I’m very excited to be here and thank you for your time.
What’s Been Done?
C: MT: Thank you. Hopefully over the next few years these faces will become familiar to all of you. I
want to take a moment to talk about what has been done. A lot of work has been completed on the
Route 9 corridor over the last decade and a lot of that was the result of the 2004 Connecticut River
Crossings Transportation Study (CRCTS). The CRCTS covered the area from Holyoke to Sunderland
and looked at regional mobility with a focus on the potential for a new crossing over the Connecticut
River. The proposed crossing was not found to be prudent and the concept of a new bridge was
outweighed by the social and environmental impacts associated with it. Although the idea was
dismissed there were some key recommendations that came out of the study. The first was to provide
a consistent, 4-lane cross-section along Route 9. As you all know, some of that has already been
implemented in places like the Coolidge Bridge crossing near the I-91 interchange. We are looking to
finalize and implement the recommendations from the CRCTS with a more comprehensive approach.
The second recommendation was to improve the transit service of the B43 which connects UMass and
the Town of Amherst to Northampton through Hadley. The recommendation was to improve the
service to something we call BRT lite. For those of you who are unfamiliar, BRT is a dedicated travel
lane restricted to bus service. We hope to borrow from some of the technological solutions in a BRT lite
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approach by implementing signal preemption, queue by-pass lanes, and improve existing transit stops
to be more user friendly. In 2004, smart phones were not very common. We now have the opportunity
to provide real time data and transit alerts to your smart phones. This can be made available on your
personal device and at the transit stop. In 2014, the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA)
conducted a comprehensive service analysis for all of their bus routes. One of the key findings was that
the B43 would be well supported based on its ridership to implement BRT lite. The width of Route 9 is
constrained and a wider scenario in the future it will be even more constrained. I’ll talk more about
how we can improve the transit service along Route 9 while working within these constraints.
Where Are We Now?
Right now there are three major modal connections between Amherst and Northampton within Hadley.
The first is the Route 9 corridor which is the most vehicular connection. The second is the celebrated
and beloved Norwottuck Rail Trail. The third is the PVTA’s transit connection using the B43. We
recognized that the portion of Route 9 between Middle Street and South Maple Street is the bottleneck
where we lose our four-lane cross section. There are a number of other issues such as the East Street
signal, intersection safety, lack of American with Disability Act (ADA) infrastructure, pedestrian and
bicycle accommodations, as well as hampered transit service. We feel that the Norwottuck Rail Trail
is great for people going the entire distance but people making the shorter trips within Hadley are not
well served.
Our project goals are to improve safety and relieve congestion for all users. In order to do this we want
to take a two-tier approach. The first is to address the bottleneck by widening Route 9. There are a
number of alternatives we’re going to work through to address the bottleneck. We want to improve
Route 9 without diminishing the character of Hadley. We’ve heard a lot about the agrarian heritage
and we agree that it is extremely important to preserve it. We want to improve ADA accessibility for
our less abled body users who need accommodations such as curb ramps and accessible features at
intersections. We want to improve the overall condition of the roadway by rehabilitating pavement and
improving the drainage infrastructure.
The second tier to our approach will be to conduct a long-term transit mobility study. In our mediumterm plan, which we see as a five years, our goal is to increase the throughput for vehicles. In our longterm plan, our goal is to increase the throughput of people. When I say the throughput for people, I
mean all modes of transportation with a focus transit. We’re going to conduct a transit mobility and
alternative analysis study to look at different ways to improve the B43 service. We hope to make the
B43 a more desirable route than taking a personal vehicle. Our two-tier approach starts by
comprehensively reconstructing Route 9 to be a more multimodal facility.
In the next construction season you start to see improvements at the Middle Street intersection.
Beyond these initial improvements we will be widening Route 9 to a three or four-lane cross section.
Past the Lowes Site Drive, we realize that the context changes and becomes the commercial center.
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Within the commercial zone we envision accommodations to increase the multimodal character by
constructing sidewalks and bicycle accommodations. Everything that we do between the stretch of
Middle Street to Maple Street would incorporate any of recommendations from our transit study. This
includes the potential for queue jump lanes, dedicated space where feasible, and new as well as safer
bus stops. This will all be established through a community process and tonight is the first milestone
in that process. We are going to develop alternatives and bring them back to this community to hear
your input. We have established a stakeholder group that we’ve met with once so far. You can read
details about that session on our project website. We’ve also met with elected officials and other key
stakeholders. They have all been helpings us determine how to get to a point to start making decisions.
We believe we have an opportunity to significantly improve the service of the B43.
Next Steps
Our next steps are to conduct the transit mobility and alternatives study. We see this as the key to
informing what happens on the ground in terms of physical reconstruction. We will then develop the
corridor alternatives as an outcome from the study. Throughout all of this we will have ongoing
coordination with our key stakeholders and public information meetings similar to tonight. In terms of
our project schedule, we’ve initiated the project and are working to get the key issues out on the table.
Right now we are holding our first public information meeting. Our immediate next step is to do the
transit mobility and alternatives study. Eventually we will take the findings from that study to a
preferred alternative that is supported and reviewed in the state environmental review process. Once
it is complete we will enter our design.
In the meantime, we won’t be doing any hard engineering until we have a preferred alternative that we
have gained reasonable consensus on. Construction in five years may seem like a long time out but in
the world of transportation that’s a heartbeat. Our goal is to keep you all informed. You can stay upto-date with the ongoing process by visiting our project website. Tonight’s presentation will make its
way onto the project website. Tonight we’ve had the privilege of being televised on local access
television. We will also have a set of detailed meeting minutes posted to the project website as well as
the presentation. Thank you everyone, I tried to keep the presentation as short as possible so we can
have an open dialogue with all of you.
Question & Answer
C: Andy Morris-Friedman (AMF): Hi my name is Andy Morris-Friedman and I live at 45 Roosevelt Street
in Hadley. I’m on the Norwottock Rail Trail advisory committee and I’m interested in two particular
things relating to bicycling. The first is that the Norwottock Rail Trail stay open during construction;
particularly the tunnel. The second is the possibility of bike lanes and bike boxes at the Maple Street
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intersection. I suggest placing a bike lane from North Maple Street to the Norwottock Rail Trail. Do
you have any plans or are you just asking us for our insight?
A: MT: We don’t have an engineered plan yet. We have noted the connection you spoke of as being very
poor for cyclists. We are looking to improve the crossing of the Norwottock Rail Trail on Maple Street
as well as the connection to the reconstructed Route 9 from the Norwottock Rail Trail. These are both
key priorities for us.
C: AMF: I would love to talk to you more about that. Thank you.
C: MT: In terms of the overall approach to bicycle accommodations on Route 9, there is an entire suite of
alternatives for how we put bikes on roadways. All of those alternatives are on the table right now.
There is a lot of buzz across the country about separated bike lanes which are also known as “cycle
tracks.” All of these alternatives are on the table.
C: Michael Klimoski (MK): My name is Michael Klimoski. I am with the Town of Hadley’s department of
public works (DPW). I want to thank MassDOT for their willingness to help us with our infrastructure
and aging water lines. We’ve been struggling with this for years and now that this section of roadway
is being reconstructed we see this as a possibility to take advantage of it. I think this will be a
tremendous asset to the Town of Hadley and allow us to save up to $80 thousand. Thank you.
A: MT: Thank you Michael. We look forward to working with you as well.
Q: David Tudryn (DT): Good evening, my name is David Tudryn. I am the chairperson of the Hadley
municipal buildings committee. I’d like to thank you for tonights presentation. Along the way of our
committee communicating with MassDOT we learned about the potential widening of Route 9 in
Hadley. It was our understanding that the widening at the Middle Street intersection would be
advanced before your study. Could you talk about the specifics relative to the 2.25 mile work and when
that will occur?
A: MT: Right now it is a little unclear to us. We need to develop alternatives and bring them to the
community, key stakeholders, and through an environmental review process. I can come up with some
strong guesses as to how long that will take. It will be about a year for us to get through our
alternatives analysis. Another year or two to get through the state environmental review process.
There is also some uncertainty associated with the Federal environmental review process. In general,
our goal working with PVPC is to shoot for five years. That is subject to change, it could improve but I
think that is a safe expectation to set for everyone.
Q: DT: Thank you. Relative to our municipal buildings which are very close to Route 9 and delicate
structures, our committee wants to express our concern over the construction work and how those
structures would be monitored. I just wanted to go on record with that. My second point is relating to
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the BRT conversation and dedicated space. I take from your comments that there are ways to do BRT
lite with signalization and options without dedicated space. Could you touch on some of those
alternatives?
A: MT: We are aware of your concern regarding the municipal buildings. I was here at a select board
meeting with Rich Massey who committed to ensuring that the construction and vibration monitoring
would take place. That was a concern we heard and we’ve incorporated into the projects specifications.
Regarding BRT versus BRT lite, I don’t have a lot of faith that full dedicated space along the entire
corridor will be feasible, but I’m leaving it up to my team to do an unbiased analysis of that. We’ll go
through a comprehensive modeling and traffic analysis to inform how those alternatives work. In
partnership with the PVTA we will be looking at the spectrum of full dedicated space to something that
resembles key improvements.
C: DT: Thank you.
C: Gerry Devine (GD): Hi, I’m Gerry Devine, I’m on the board of selectman in Hadley. I’m a little
concerned that the B43 buses will not be making enough stops in the Town of Hadley. We don’t want to
be just a throughway. 29 percent of the people who live in the Town of Hadley work at UMass. We also
have a lot of students who go to UMass and live in Hadley. I want to make sure that the bus stops are
not forgotten and the buses don’t fill up at one point.
A: MT: That’s a great point. Bus stops are one of the things we’ve been looking at. PVTA has done a lot
of great stuff in terms of data collection and where their ridership numbers are coming from. We’re
going to be consolidating some of the stops and balancing that with some of the key improvements. By
no means do we envision flying through Hadley.
C: GD: We hopeful and optimistic that more people with be using the B43 in the future than the ridership
today. Thank you.
A: MT: Thank you.
C: Bill Dwyer (BD): Hi I’m Bill Dywer and I’m on the Hadley planning board. I wanted to reiterate in this
forum what we have discussed before. The planning board is a leading indicator of economic recovery.
We are getting permitting applications for the entire length of Route 9 in Hadley. As we are going
through them I have been trying to direct the contractors and developers to be in touch with you. The
issue is that they are not going to wait. I want to ask that you get as much detail out there as soon as
you can and perhaps earlier than normal. We have people making decisions based on not a lot of
information.
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A: MT: Thank you for the comments Bill. It’s something you’ve raised before and definitely a valid
concern. We don’t want to tell property owners that they can’t do this or that. We’ll continue to work
with you and the planning board to make sure you don’t have to duplicate your efforts. Thank you.
C: Andy Klepacki (AK): Hi I’m Andy Klepacki. I’m a Hadley resident, frequent user of Route 9, and the
Norwottock Rail Trail. We appreciate your efforts to reinvest in the Norwottock Rail Trail. Years ago
there was an effort to widen the bridge to four-lanes. Being a user of the road, there are two significant
stumbling blocks for the overall throughput. I’m wondering how you plan to incorporate them into your
project. The first is the light at the other end of the bridge. Sometimes the traffic backs up to the
Hampshire Mall. Parallel to that is the new light at the industrial park which has caused Damon Road
to back up. I see this location as an essentially part of helping the overall throughput of the corridor.
A: MT: The district is aware of this issue.
C: AK: There was another project that was going on. I haven’t seen much progress in a long time. They
had a number of scenarios that they were working on. In order to improve the throughput, you have to
fix the valve at the end of the pipe. Thank you.
A: MT: Jeff or Paula, do you have an update? I know we have a project on the books for that interchange.
It is a completely separate project and process but I think it would be useful to give everyone an update
on that.
A: Jeff Hoynoski (JH): Hi everyone, my name is Jeff Hoynoski. I work at the MassDOT district office in
Northampton. The project Michael is taking about at the interchange is due to be out for advertising in
2018. It is on the transportation improvement program (TIP). The plan is to install a two-lane
roundabout on this side of I-91. There is an additional project which should be out in 2017 to make
improvements to Damon Road. A lot of the signal problems at the industrial park relating to Damon
Road have to do with the additional train traffic.
A: MT: Thanks Jeff.
C: Dick Guzowski (DG): Hi. My name is Dick Guzowski. I am a resident of Northampton and daily user
of Route 9. I’d like to reiterate what the previous speaker said about the signal and the traffic at the
far end of the corridor. At this day in age with computers, it seems like the lights could better be
coordinated with each other to alleviate some of the congestion. In some western States you can find
yourself sitting at an intersection for 3 minutes because the traffic on the throughway is heavy and the
side streets are not. I’m hoping that you can incorporate smart traffic signals where possible.
A: MT: As it was previously mentioned, it sounds like we are going to de-signalize that intersection and
install a roundabout.
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C: Becky Shannon (BS): Hi, I’m Becky Shannon from Northampton. You identified all of the problems
that we have with Route 9. It seems like your concentration is near the shopping centers. I hope you
have more pedestrian crossings on Route 9 closer to the bridge area. Right now, if you want to cross
near West Street you have to risk your life. There are no traffic signals in that area so you just have to
wait for the traffic to clear.
A: MT: Thank you for your input. The reason why we are focusing on the shopping center is because that
is where the bottleneck section exists. That section is our key focus for implementing a project for
construction. I think we can work with the district in order to come up with some short-term solutions
to create safer crossing zones. We’ll continue to look at it. Thanks.
C: Eva Hull (EH): Hi, I’m Eva and I live in Northampton. I use the B43 every day and I use to live at the
West Street intersection. I use to walk down to Middle Street to cross because there is a pedestrian
light at that location. There is a bus stop at West Street but you can’t safety get to it from the other
side of the street. This morning I was on the B43 and a person in a wheel chair got off at the mall. The
new cut out at the mall is great but the bus still doesn’t go down to the mall. The whole time I was
wondering how the person in the wheel chair is going to get to where they are going. It’s terrifying,
especially when there is snow on the ground. It’s great that you are looking to implement smarter bus
stops based on locations and consolidations but you also need to consider how to get to and from those
bus stops.
A: MT: We don’t have jurisdiction over private property. As part of the overall B43 mobility analysis, I
think some of those issues may start to flush out. We can work with the PVTA to identify key priorities
to accommodate all of the users. I’m glad you brought it up; I’ll take a look at that bus stop. All of the
stops within the section of the corridor we’ve been talking about will be made ADA accessible. Thank
you; it’s a really good point.
C: Name not given (NNG): I want to talk about pedestrian access. There have been a lot of studies done
looking at where and why people cross the street. I’ve seen a lot of people crossing near the Whole
Foods. The large intersection at Maple Street is almost impossible to cross. You may want to consider
tracking where people are crossing.
A: MT: That’s a good idea. I think it will be influenced by what is there. I’m not sure what we’ll be doing
to measure pedestrian movements but it will definitely be considered.
C: Dan Regish (DG): Hi, I’m Dan Regish. I’m a live-long resident of Hadley. I’d like to thank you for
coming out tonight and giving the community our chance to provide comments. I have a concern which
may sound like a small issue. We have a Hadley snow mobile club which has grown to a couple
hundred members. If you’ve been out to the hill towns you’ve probably seen the diamond shaped
snowmobile crossing signs. The signs are provided by MassDOT. We have a crossing on Route 9 and it
is the only place we can legally cross because it is two-lanes. When it widens to three or four-lanes we
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will not be able to legally cross. We don’t have a huge membership but there are hundreds of crossings
over Route 9 each season. We would entertain the idea of using the tunnel in the winter.
Q: MT: Where is the crossing?
A: DG: It’s just east of East Street.
A: MT: We don’t really see a lot of snowmobile crossings in our urban design projects. I think this is neat.
Don’t worry about your membership numbers, just because they’re not a thousand of you doesn’t mean
you aren’t important.
C: DG: It is a major trail crossing.
A: MT: We’re not going to leave you stranded. Using the tunnel is an interesting alternative. I think we
can accommodate you. There are a lot of treatments we can look at for providing a safe accommodation
at-grade across Route 9. I don’t know if they’ve ever been used for snow mobiles but in urban settings
for non-signalized pedestrian crossings we often use rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFB). We
also have hawk signals which turn red when a user is queued or waited to cross.
C: DG: We would be happy with just a diamond snowmobile crossing sign.
A: MT: That’s great and much cheaper. We didn’t have this crossing on our radar so it’s a good thing to
know.
C: DG: It sounds like you’ve address all of my other concerns regarding the pedestrian paths and bus pull
offs. Thank you.
A: MT: We’re just getting started; we have a lot to study. Thank you.
Q: Susan Norris (SN): Hi, I’m Susan Norris and I’m a Hadley resident. I drive on Route 9 all the time in
both directions. When you come across the bridge heading east, I am terrified that someone is going to
turn left onto West Street and cause an accident. Sometimes people have to wait to turn and I find
myself waiting because the person in front of me is trying to turn. It is an accident waiting to happen.
The same is true in both directions. What is going to be done? What can you do?
A: MT: We’re going to take a modern approach to engineering the roadway. We’ll consider the national
practices and standards that address this type of situation.
Q: SN: Can you add an extra lane?
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A: MT: Perhaps. Part of our goal is to go through a project development process. In this process we’ll
look at where the heavier movements are if lanes should be dedicated to specific movements.
C: SN: The Cross Path Road after the bridge was finally fixed by implemented a no left-turn. People still
do it but not many. West Street is still very bad. I hope it is addressed, I don’t know how it will be.
A: MT: We will address it. We won’t put something less safe out there. Thank you for your input.
Q: Alan Weinberg (AW): Hi, my name is Alan Weinberg. I’m a resident of Hadley and also a trustee of
the library. As a resident I’m glad to hear that you’re talking about new bicycle accommodations and
pedestrian sidewalks near the mall. As far as the library goes, we are concerned about the effects of
the roadwork and widening. I’m concerned that this will affect the library structurally and
aesthetically. Middle Street is already four-lanes. Are you still thinking about a further widening at
this location?
A: MT: No.
C: AW: I can understand a bus cutout but I would caution you to look hard before you put one in front of
the library. It would make sense functionally but it would bring the street up to the front door. I hope
to see some additional alternatives.
A: MT: It’s great input. In terms of how we accommodate bus stops we don’t know how we’re going to do
it yet. We’re going to evaluate different design treatments and analyze them as part of our transit
mobility study.
Q: Wendy Robinson (WR): I’m Wendy Robinson and I live in Northampton. You mentioned alternatives
for Route 9. Can you say a little bit more about that?
A: MT: The key theme to environmental review and permitting is to avoid, minimize, and mitigate
environmental impacts. One of the things we’re trying to address with the mobility of Route 9 is to fit
more people and minimize the amount of pavement. The alternatives we’re looking at include the
number of lanes and the width of the roadway. It will be a balance of the long-term need versus the
short-term need. Rather than having two-lanes in each direction, an alternative could be to have a
three-lane cross section with a center turning lane. MassDOT has a healthy transportation policy
directive that requires us to provide sidewalks on both sides of the road and bike accommodations with
a minimum 5 foot shoulder. When I say alternatives I don’t only mean the lane assignments, I’m also
talking about alternatives to accommodate bicycles and pedestrians.
C: Linda Ziegenbein (LG): Hi I’m Linda Ziegenbein. I’m a resident of Hadley and a member of the
historical commission. I can speak for us and say that we are very grateful for your responsiveness
regarding our concerns with the widening in front of the library. I am also a parent of the Pioneer
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Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School. I think this area needs some attention as you look at traffic
patterns. When the school is full it will have 500 students and there is already a lot of traffic during
school drop-offs. I’ve already been rear-ended twice turning into the school parking lot on Route 9. As
the school grows it’s going to get worse. There are children who walk and bike to school along Route 9.
A: MT: We’ll definitely take a look at it.
C: AK: Hi again. As a quick reference, there was a master plan that was put together and is accessible
through the town website.
A: MT: Thank you. We’ve reviewed it. We recognize that Route 9 is serving many different functions and
underserving many different functions in the bottleneck section. Route 9 acts as the main artery for
connections between Northampton and Amherst. We’re also very aware that this is the economic
development zone for Hadley. It is laid out very clearly that way ion the Town of Hadley’s master plan.
C: AK: Part of the master plan emphasizes that it is not only the economic growth but the section
between West Street and Middle Street is the historic center of Town.
A: MT: Hadley Center is one of the last agricultural centers in the state, of course we want to preserve it.
C: DT: Hi, David Tudryn again. I want to reiterate what Andy said. West Street to Middle Street
includes our public high school, a coffee shop, a donut shop, the court house, a church, and many other
public assets. I would encourage you to explore the project limits a little bit further west towards
Middle Street. Our children walk along the sidewalks to Cumberland Farms. We shut down Route 9
once a year for a parade and I think we all kind of like that. This is the center of our community and
Route 9 goes right through it which sometimes feels unfortunate. If we can improve this portion of
corridor so that it is more livable for all of us that would be great. The cut through to avoid Route 9 on
Rocky Hill Road also contributes to the dangerous left-turn onto Middle Street which was mentioned
before. I would consider asking for a no-left turn in that area.
A: MT: Thank you for your comments.
C: RG: Hi again, my name is Richard Guzowski. I’m glad to see that you’re accommodating pedestrians.
We do however have a phenomenon in this part of the world called winter. Winter often means snow
and a state highway with three or four-lanes can end up piling a large amount of snow on the sidewalk.
I’ve notice that we have a sidewalk over the bridge now but in the winter time the state ceases
maintenance. I don’t know if it is a maintenance issue for the state or the responsibility of the property
owners?
A: MT: You’ve touched on a very important issue. We will continue to work with the district to address it.
We’ve heard this many times before and we know it’s a problem. I know from a MassDOT perspective
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that we often build sidewalks and then walk away. It’s a problem we have state wide. I don’t have an
answer for you at this moment but we will continue to work with the district.
Q: Andy Morris-Friedman (AMF): Sidewalks in the winter are an issue but it’s not a reason not to put
them in. Hopefully the money becomes available to maintain these facilities. Some people believe that
road widening doesn’t work and that if you make the roads wider, you get more traffic. Could you
address that and why you don’t think this work will make things worse?
A: MT: That’s a great question. I’m working on other projects in the state where we are actually reducing
capacity and inducing congestion. For MassDOT, it’s like a double bacon cheeseburger for someone who
just had a heart attack. We’re trying to be more progressive in our approach to these things. We’re
trying to manage mobility that doesn’t just serve single occupancy vehicles. In this case, Route 9 serves
a major regional function. There is also a serious congestion issue. In the medium term our plan will
address that congestion but it won’t necessarily address the long-term typical growth projection. This
is why the transit mobility study and improvements to the B43 are such a key part of how to make the
long-term mobility work. If taking the bus is more convenient than taking your car than people will do
it. That’s our overall philosophy. You’re right; ultimately more capacity means it’s easier to drive.
Wider highways don’t necessarily mean better highways. We’re with you but in this case, I think the
congestion is so severe that not addressing it by widening could result in an even worse scenario.
C: Rosalie Weinberg (RW): Hi I’m Rosalie Weinberg. I live at 108 Bay Road. I’m concerned about the
part of Route 9 from Maple Street to University Drive. There are no sidewalks on either side. There
are hotels, restaurants, and shops but not sidewalks. You have to hop in a car and drive everywhere.
In the winter I’ve seen people standing on snow banks for the bus and people pushing shopping carts
down Route 9 because there is no sidewalk.
A: MT: There all good points and they’re all issues that we want to fix.
C: RW: Thanks.
C: MT: I really appreciate all of the comments from everybody. It sounds like we’re all just about on the
same page. The snow mobile concern was definitely something new to us. We’re going to continue to do
our homework and start digging into our analysis. We’ll continue working with our stakeholders. If
you want to receive email updates from us please sign-in at the back of the room. If you want to access
our project website, Google “Route 9 Corridor Improvement Project.” Otherwise, thank you all so much
and have a wonderful night.
Next Steps
MassDOT and the project team will work to progress the transit mobility and alternative analysis study
with the goal in reaching a preferred alternative. Once the findings of the transit mobility and alternative
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analysis study are complete, MassDOT will hold a second public information meeting to present the
results. It is anticipated that the next public information meeting will happen sometime in the late winter.
Appendix 1: Meeting Attendees
First Name
Last Name
Affiliation
Glenn
Barrington
UMass
Tim
Brennan
PVPC
Jamin
Carroll
PVTA/VATG
Richard
Cooper
Florence Resident
Rob
Crowner
Hadley Resident
Jason
DeGray
GPI
Gerry
Devine
Town of Hadley
William
Dwyer
Town of Hadley
Dave
Eisenstadter
Daily Hampshire Gazette
Margaret
Freeman
Hadley Historical Commission
Ginger
Goldsbury
Hadley Historical Commission
Christine
Gray-Muller
Town of Amherst
Nick
Gross
Howard Stein Hudson
Richard
Guzowski
Hadley Resident
Jeff
Hoynoski
MassDOT
Eva
Hull
Hadley Resident
K
Jones
Amherst Public Transpo.
Catherine
Kay
Florence Resident
Kevin
Kennedy
Five Colleges
Andy
Klepacki
Hadley MBC
Michael
Klimoski
Town of Hadley
Alan
Moore
Northampton Resident
Guilford
Mooring
Town of Hadley
Andy
Morris-Friedman
Rail Trail
Michele
Morris-Friedman
Hadley Resident
Robert
Natario
MassDOT
David
Nixon
Town of Hadley
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David
Noonan
Hadley Resident
Susan
Norris
Hadley Resident
John
Osorio
GPI
Marie
Panik
Northampton Resident
Carolyn
Radisch
GPI
Dan
Regish
Hadley MBC
Josh
Rickman
PVTA
Wendy
Robinson
Hadley Resident – Ward 3
Weinberg
Rosalie
Hadley Resident
Dana
Roscoe
PVPC
Becky
Shannon
Northampton Resident
Paula
Simmons
MassDOT
Marjorie
Townsend
Hadley Resident
Richard
Trueswell
Town of Hadley
Jonathan
Tucker
Town of Amherst
David
Tudryn
Hadley MBC
Alan
Weinberg
Hadley Resident
Linde
Zielenbein
Hadley Resident
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