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Date: 12/27/2022
NORTHAMPTON – A $180,000 bridge lights project over Main Street is currently in the works to help bring more economic vitality to the downtown Northampton area.
Background
As part of the COVID-19 economic recovery planning, the city identified that improvements should be made to the bike path and railroad underpasses on Main Street to “create a better pedestrian experience.”
More specifically, the city wants to incorporate the underpasses as part of a gateway to help the lower portion of Main Street, otherwise known as “Paradise East,” as an integrated component of downtown Northampton.
Part of that integration includes adding lights to the bridge that stands between the main area of downtown Northampton and the entrance to the Bridge Street part of town.
“A great deal of investment and energy has been put into that Paradise East area on the other side of the railway bridge by businesses and restaurants,” said Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra. “We are just excited to draw people over there.”
According to Sciarra, this bridge on the edge of downtown Northampton is in fact split into three different structures. The first bridge, the bike path bridge, is the one where the lights will be installed. The second structure is the train bridge, and then the third one is considered the “truck-eating” bridge.
Aside from the bike path bridge, Sciarra also said that Northampton is working with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) to also beautify the second bridge with public art or through some other mechanisms. Nothing is set in stone yet, however.
The current and next steps
Northampton received a grant from MassDOT’s Shared Spaces and Streets grant for lighting improvements for the bike bridge underpass back in the summer of 2021, which is also when a community meeting was conducted to collect feedback about the bridge.
The city hired Tom Douglas Architects of Northampton as a consultant to design the installation under the bike bridge, and the lights themselves – which will be made by Color Kinetics – are programmable and can change colors.
The city has already set aside $108,000 from traffic mitigation, the tourism gift account, and wayfinding funds to implement the design.
According to Carolyn Misch, the director of Planning & Sustainability, the bids for constructing the lighting design were much higher than anticipated, leaving a gap of $75,000.
“[The contractor] has started to mobilize in not a physical way, but prepping and ordering the equipment, doing final checking of the space,” said Misch. “The installation probably won’t happen until late next spring due to a backlog and supply issues.”
According to Alan Wolf, the mayor’s chief of staff, the installation of these lights quickly became an important aspect of the city’s economic recovery plan from COVID-19.
“In the past, we’ve put art on the bridge, and this is sort of trying to turn the bridge itself into a work of art that is something that will attract people and become a real placemaking asset to the city of Northampton in a spot that’s frankly a little bit dark and damp right now,” said Wolf. “It sort of leaks and drips … this is part of trying to improve that whole area.”
Wolf also cited similar installations in Boston and Memphis as signifiers of economic growth and a growing tourism base. “It’s part of this whole effort to create the other side of the truck-eating bridge in in the Paradise East neighborhood, which you can imagine is going to Joe’s Pizza, Historic Northampton and Hawley Street,” said Wolf. “We desperately want to tie the downtown experience to them.”
The lights themselves are LED lights and environmentally friendly. According to Wolf, they will also last a long time and the city can change them to fit the aura of a certain time of year. If the Boston Celtics are in the playoffs, for example, the city can change the lights to a green color.
“I think it’s the next big thing for our downtown to cement our economic recovery and continue to attract people from all over the region to come eat in our restaurants and come shop in our stores,” said Wolf.
During the Dec. 15 meeting, the City Council officially approved the $75,000 for the purchase and installation of the lights over Main Street.