AMHERST — As reconstruction of the main intersection in downtown Amherst gets underway, improving accessibility and the existing infrastructure, several other roads will be resurfaced over the rest of the summer and possibly through November.
Palmer Paving is handling the work for the town, embarking on the initial projects included in a two-year, $4.55 million plan that will cover 2.47 miles of roads.
The town announced this week that the company will begin by rebuilding sections of Main, Amity, North Pleasant and South Pleasant streets, a six-to-eight-week project in the heart of the commercial district.
Town Manager Paul Bockelman said the remainder of the roadwork is being scheduled, with hopes to get a list of roads done this year, though some could be pushed back to spring 2026 if delays or other complications arise.
The planned work for 2025 includes a 1,400-foot stretch of College Street from South East Street to the Eversource substation at 259 College St.; a 2,020-foot section of South Pleasant Street from Snell Street to Northampton Road, passing along the edge of the Amherst College campus; 1,240 feet of Pomeroy Lane from West Street to Carriage Lane; and 2,331 feet of South East Street from the Norwottuck Rail Trail overpass to Valley View Drive. In addition, all of Kestrel Lane and Hop Brook Road will be rebuilt.
Finally, one of the roughest sections of road in town, West Bay Road, will have 1,425 feet repaved in the area of Applewood Apartments and the Hampshire College campus. That roadwork is between Gould Way and Rambling Road and from Spencer Drive to the Hadley town line.
The town is supporting roadwork with a mix of reconstruction and preventive treatments. Residents should anticipate temporary detours, periodic lane closures and some noise during construction hours.
All of this comes in advance of the other major project, to change the signalized intersection of University Drive and Amity Street into a roundabout. At the entrance to the University of Massachusetts campus, that is being paid for with a MassWorks Infrastructure grant. Next to that will be the redevelopment of the former Rafter’s restaurant at 422 Amity St., with the building to be demolished in August to make way for a six-story mixed-use building.
The Department of Public Works’ pavement management and paving plan guides decisions on what work to do. That plan is developed in coordination with StreetScan, a company that comes in every three to five years with various scanning and photography devices attached to a vehicle to evaluate the town’s 103 miles of roads using a road distress detection process.
An algorithm then ranks each road from zero to 100 on a pavement condition index, or PCI, going from failed and serious to good and excellent, and also examines how much traffic volume each road handles.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
