It was a week of focusing on transportation issues for me.
If you live near Drugstore Hill and the old Pochassic Hill Bridge, that sound you hear this weekend is the sound of the old bridge being demolished in preparation of the new one being built. Don’t complain. It means the bridge project is back on track and on its way to being completed.
A funny thing happened last week. The owner of the R. Bates & Sons Company called me. R. Bates & Sons is the company that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation awarded the contract to to build the pedestrian walkway over the railroad tracks, rehabilitate the historic archway, demolish the old bridge, and build the new bridge.
He asked to meet with me and Senator Mike Knapik to discuss a proposal he had to expedite the work on the Pochassic Hill project. We agreed to meet with him and listened to what he had to say. He had some fairly common-sense requests that we agreed to look into. We then brought Mayor Dan Knapik into the conversation and he, in turn, got the Westfield City Engineer involved.
We all made it clear to the folks at the MA DOT that Westfield wanted this project to move as quickly as possible.
Long story short, through the innovation of the contractor and our intervention with Mass DOT, the contractor received approval from the state to work long days over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend to substantially demolish the bridge. The workers will be jack-hammering concrete and cutting steel away from the old bridge deck to get access to the big steel girders underneath. Those will be removed with a crane next week.
Once the old span is gone, pedestrians from the hill will be able to use the large, elaborate wooden walkway behind Tierney’s Insurance and Whip City Candle to cross the railroad tracks and get on and off the hill while the new bridge is being built.
We all agree this project has languished for too long. It should have remained a part of the overall Great River Bridge project but was stripped out. Then, after a routine inspection, the state DOT inspectors ordered it shut immediately which inconvenienced the residents of the hill immensely. Once it is complete, motorists, me included, will need to get used to the new flow of traffic at the intersection by Elm Pizza and The Butcher Block.
One question I have gotten from many people who live or work in the area concerns the bridge on Notre Dame Street that is being used by all car, truck, and bus traffic going on and off the hill. Folks were worried that due to all the use it was getting it may deteriorate faster and need to be closed down as well.
I want to let you know that I checked with MA DOT and they assure me that the bridge is receiving routine inspections and shows no signs of any degradation. They say it is completely structurally sound.
On Thursday, I went to a meeting at the MA DOT District 2 office in Northampton with the Secretary of Transportation Richard Davey. The Secretary came out from Boston to meet with state and local officials to talk about the Governor’s proposal called “The Way Forward, A 21st Century Transportation Plan.” He and the Governor filed their transportation bond bill this week on Beacon Hill.
The general consensus was that transportation infrastructure across the state should be, but has not always been, a priority. We all agreed that any solution should be fair and equitable to every region of the Commonwealth with no one region paying an unfair share or receiving an unfair benefit. While Secretary Davey dutifully pushed the Governor’s proposal to increase the income tax and reduce the sales tax while dedicating it to transportation, there was some hesitancy about the likelihood of his plan passing the Legislature.
We also discussed how agencies like MA DOT are being painted with the proverbial broad brush by voters and taxpayers fed up with reading and hearing about waste, fraud, and abuse in several high profile cases involving several large state agencies like the Department of Transitional Assistance and the Department of Public Health.
I like the Secretary and his team and believe they are men and women of good faith. I applaud his willingness to visit Western Massachusetts and answer our questions. We’ll know soon enough what Speaker Bob DeLeo and the Committees on Ways and Means and Transportation have in mind when we take up the Transportation Bond Bill this spring before we tackle the state budget.
I want to thank the students and faculty from St. Mary’s schools for coming to Boston this week on Catholic Education Advocacy Day. It was my pleasure to meet with them in the Great Hall.
Congratulations to the Westfield Colleen and her Court, our Irishman of the Year, Pat Murphy, Irishwoman of the Year, Karen Casey, and to Jack and Denise Quinn, our Parade Marshals for the Westfield contingent who will be leading the way through the streets of Holyoke on Sunday for the annual Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Parade. I also want to give my kudos to the float committee that has, once again, designed and built a most amazing and beautiful float for the parade.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day everybody!
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not the staff, editor, or publisher of the Westfield News.
Representative Don Humason and his Chief of Staff Maura Cassin may be reached at their Westfield District Office, 64 Noble Street, Westfield, MA 01085, (413) 568-1366.
Representative Don Humason may be reached at his Boston office, State House Room 542, Boston, MA 02133, (617) 722-2803.
Email address: [email protected]
Website: www.DonHumason.org
