Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), the inventor of dynamite, was a chemist, engineer, businessman and, most memorably, philanthropist; he was also a scholar, fluent in Russian, French, English and German. Above all, he loved poetry.
Town manager Mark Pruhenski acknowledged that the costs for the emergency repair of the Division Street bridge, which are currently unknown, would be in addition to whatever it costs to perform a permanent repair or replacement.
Whether one lane of the Brown Bridge is closed during construction or whether it is shut down altogether, the construction will be a major disruption to traffic, especially considering the fact that the town-owned Division Street bridge was closed by the state in the second week of September.
At Monday's Great Barrington Selectboard meeting at the Claire Teague Senior Center, concerns ranged from traffic, speeding, and the impact the closure of the Division Street and Cottage Street bridges are having on businesses and residents alike.
The reality is that several businesses on that strip have closed in recent months, leading to the question of what replaces those businesses that have left and whether the current zoning is too restrictive to allow for a full range of replacements, including residential or mixed-use combinations.
Berkshire Regional Planning Commission senior transportation planner Eammon Coughlin said the town will be notified in late December if it is awarded funding.
Housatonic Water Works maintains nearly 90,000 linear feet of water mains, mostly cast iron installed in the 1880s. Although these lines remain in good condition, they are more reactive to chlorine which can cause increased iron sediment.
Researching the carrot family, I discovered yellow flowering wild parsnip, a plant that is reported to be as hazardous as poison ivy. Upon close examination of a 6-feet-tall individual, it was clear that I had, in fact, come upon wild parsnip.
The proposal by Oasis Campus LLC to build a sprawling cannabis production facility on 106 acres near Lake Buel and abutting the Sandisfield State Forest has roiled the waters of this normally quiet town.
The closure of the bridge is to facilitate the removal of the temporary bridge and implement a new traffic pattern onto the newly constructed Phase I bridge.
MassDOT says it will continue to update the public as it implements this phase of the project and that crews will work "24/7" to complete installation of the temporary bridge.
MassDOT will continue its comprehensive evaluation process and will update the public in the coming week as it analyzes the current status of the bridge.
MassDOT has implemented a traffic management plan that includes variable message boards to inform the public, including one at the intersection of Route 183 and Route 7 (Stockbridge Road). The department says the signed detour utilizes Route 7, Route 102 and Route 183 in towns of Great Barrington and Stockbridge.
