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Date: 5/18/2021
EASTHAMPTON – The city of Easthampton is planning to finish up construction near Park Street on the Mountain View School roundabout over the next few months.
According to information provided by the city, people traveling on Park Street could expect possible delays and “variable traffic patterns” from now until August. The road will remain open at all times but people should expect to stop or move through the intersection slowly.
As of the time of this report, crews are out there doing alternate one lane of travel, according to Easthampton City Planner Jeff Bagg. “It doesn’t look like the delays are really significant right now,” said Bagg, who added that this could change depending on what the crews are doing and when.
According to Bagg, the contractor working on the project is trying not to do heavy work during school arrival and dismissal times to reduce delays. “I would say roughly 60 to 70 percent of the roundabout is done,” he said. “So now they’re working on that remainder part that is necessary to finish before the whole thing becomes operational.”
Bagg said that the construction crew will keep Park Street open as long as possible over the next couple of months, but there might be times during the day when traffic from the south is rerouted into the roundabout. At some point over the next few months, traffic will permanently be sent into the roundabout, rather than periodically. The city will provide more information when the rerouting becomes permanent.
Meanwhile, according to Tom Brown, chair of the School Building Committee, the Mountain View School project itself is “on time and on budget.”
The middle school students will be able to start attending the school in January 2022, which gives the construction crew time to demolish the current White Brook Middle School and build parking lots, driveways, and a football field. “The remainder of the students from the other elementary schools move in September of next year [2022]” said Brown. The school will serve Pre-K-8 once completed.
One construction crew is working on the Park Street improvements, while another construction crew is finishing up on the Mountain View School, according to Brown.
Additional information on the Park Street improvements could be found on the city of Easthampton’s Facebook page.