Great Barrington — Wearing mostly white, the state’s new Secretary of Transportation, Stephanie Pollack, stood in the dirt, towered over by contractors and construction workers as she learned the good news about the Main Street construction project, a $5.4 million state project that has shredded nerves since it began in earnest last spring.
“Ahead of schedule,” said a MassDOT worker in a hard hat. Politicians, local officials and reporters leaned in; the sound of equipment threatened to drown her out. The sidewalks and pavements would be done by winter wrap-up time, he added, with Main Street’s new trees planted this fall, and some possibly next spring.
Pollack smiled. “That’s what we like to hear,” she said. “It never ceases to amaze me how long projects take.”
This one was orchestrated to improve the one-half mile stretch on Route 7 from St. James Place — also known as Taconic Avenue — north to Cottage Street.
Having made an early morning trip, her first adventure into these hills since she became DOT secretary in January, she looked down where a new sidewalk was about to go, pleased.
“We should document this project,” she said, “for how to keep main areas thriving.”
“Maxymillian (Technologies) has been great,” said Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli (D-Lenox). “The traffic always kept moving.”
“And they kept it moving with a smile,” said Selectboard member Ed Abrahams.
Pollack asked how the project was doing dollar-wise. “I don’t want to talk about the budget,” said another hardhat wearer from MassDOT. “It’s going to be close.”
Another noted that the project hadn’t taken too hard a hit in the complaint department.
“Very few complaints,” she said, smiling. “We’ll add that to on time and on budget.”
The procession up Main Street began, with Rep. Pignatelli, Abrahams, Town Manager Jennifer Tabakin, Town Planner Chris Rembold, Department of Public Works Director Joe Sokul, Selectboard member Bill Cooke, DOT workers and Pollack’s staff.
And through the eyes of Pollack, the group appeared to take note of the changes as if seeing them for the first time, like the flowers planted in the soil outside shops, which for months, have borne the bulk of the aggravation.
It was notably easier to cross Main Street, from Castle Street to Bridge Street, in a group with so many bright yellow vests. The crossing lights have been out since the construction began, and attempting to cross there can make one feel like the frog in the old video game “Frogger,” where it must hop across a busy highway.
Bill Cooke said it was his understanding that hardware for those lights will arrive by the end of September, and smiled, like a doctor trying to soothe a patient.
“Everything will be back to normal by next summer,” he told The Edge.
Everyone halted at School Street. Rep. Pignatelli pointed to the new Iredale Mineral Cosmetics, Inc. headquarters in the renovated former Bryant Elementary School. Then he ushered the group forth to the 1930s-era Bridge Street bridge, which is about to get a $1 million deck makeover due to its weight-limit restrictions, and developments promised for the area that include 100 Bridge and a hotel at the old Searles High School site.
Tabakin, who with Rep. Pignatelli’s help, got the funds moved from painting the Brown Bridge on State Road to improving this one, explained how important this deck repair is for economic development here.
Pollack noted the peeling green paint on the bridge. “We should spend more money painting our bridges,” she said. “They last longer when they’re painted.” She added that when so many communities are in line for bridge work, it’s hard to give every bridge what it needs. But when a bridge closes due to disrepair, she said, they have to “go into the queue with all the other bridges.”
One of her staff pulled up in the mini-van, with a look that said, “it’s time.”
It was time to high-tail it up to Lenox, then Pittsfield, then North Adams, and have a look-see up there, too.
That was the cue for Pollack to give her spiel about how the state is making 5-year and long-term plans to keep up with roads and bridges, and the one about how both newly elected Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito got their start in local government, and so understand its “concerns.”
Translation? It’s gnarly work running town government, which sometimes involves trying to squeeze money out of state fists.
Tabakin smiled and nodded, and Secretary Pollack headed north.
