North-Central Berkshire Access Study

Goal
Status
Contact Information
Meeting Information
Documents

The goal of the North-Central Berkshire Access Study (Access Study for short) is to assist the Berkshire Metropolitan Planning Organization in deciding which alternative or project, if any, it will include in the update of the long range transportation plan. The study will identify transportation access problems in Berkshire County north of the Massachusetts Turnpike & develop alternative solutions which will be economically and environmentally viable.

Status

MassHighway prepared their draft recommendations and an Executive Summary, which were presented at a meeting on January 25. They provided technical background to BRPC, BRTA, MassHighway-District 1, and most public libraries on February 2. Comments were due on March 9. MassHighway distributed their final report by March 31. It may be viewed at MassHighway-District 1, BRPC, or BRTA. It may also be available at public libraries. See the News section for media coverage.

To read the comments sent by BRPC, click here. A technical addendum accompanied these comments.  Contact BRPC if you would like a copy.

Contact Information

 MassHighway Project Manager, Diane Madden, may be contacted at (617) 973-7477 or Diane.Madden@state.ma.us. Press inquiries should be directed to the MassHighway Director of Public Affairs at (617) 973-7889. You may also mail comments to:

Thomas F. Broderick, P.E., Chief Engineer
MassHighway Department
10 Park Plaza
Boston, MA 02116

Meeting Information

There are no meetings scheduled. 

The last meeting that related to the North-Central Berkshire Access Study was:
Special Meeting of the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission  held on Thursday, March 1, 2001 at 7:00 p.m. at Pittsfield High School Library 300 East Street, Pittsfield, Massachusetts.  Click here for the summary.

Before that, MassHighway held a meeting on JANUARY 25TH, 2001 7 PM at Nessacus Regional Middle School on their draft recommendations.The summary of that meeting and the handouts have not been made available for posting here.

Here are the meeting summaries and handouts of the last several
Regional Study Committee and  Berkshire Transportation Forum meetings
(The meetings are combined in some instances)

• Summary of BTF#4/RSC#13 meeting of March 9, 1999

Background for RSC meeting #14 August 24, 2000

• Notice of RSC meeting postponement & Study update
• Regional Study Committee Meeting #14 Agenda
• New Highway Table of Contents - Revised march 9, 2000
  (This explains the draft alternatives shown on maps)
  • Pittsfield Alternatives map
  • South County Alternatives map
  • North County Alternatives map
• TSM Auto-Oriented Improvements Package Draft - August 10, 2000
  • Development of TSM Alternative(215 k)
  • TSM Alternative Components Lee - Lenox - W. Stockbridge (419 k)
  • TSM Alternative Components Pittsfield - Dalton (434 k)
  • TSM Alternative Components Adams - N. Adams - Williamstown (410 k)
  • TSM Alternative Regional Accident Rates (220 k)
• Transit Alternative Draft - August 15, 2000
  • Existing Transit System - Berkshire County (274 k)
  • Existing Transit System - Pittsfield Area (249 k)
• Phase One Memorandum

Documents

Requests for electronic copies of the current MassHighway proposed alternatives have not been answered.  The following files are available on this web site. The Study Design & Public Participation Plan was developed to be the backbone of the Access Study. It was developed though a long process of technical, policy, and public discussions.

A set of fact sheets was prepared to introduce Access Study participants to basic transportation planning concepts. The fact sheets are: Transportation Concepts, Quality of Life & Transportation, Economic Concerns for Transportation, Common Transportation Acronyms, BRTA Fact Sheet, Environmental Aspects of Transportation, Introduction to Traffic Modeling.

To provide background on different ways of providing access, a Catalog of Transportation Techniques was prepared. Note that this is a fairly extensive document divided into sections on each mode of transportation.

Additional materials are available upon request or for review at BRPC, the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, or MassHighway-District 1.

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