NORTHAMPTON — More than 60 residents gathered inside the Senior Center Wednesday evening as city officials joined engineers from Toole Design for a presentation and “fly-through” rendering of the most up-to-date version of the Picture Main Street project.
The Main Street overhaul aims to widen the sidewalk on both sides of Main Street between Bridge and Elm streets, narrowing the roadway to only two lanes with dedicated turn lanes in the middle. It includes separated bike lanes, tree plots and public spaces.
Jason DeGray, Toole’s northeast regional director of operations and one of the project’s lead engineers, said the project is now at 100% design and under review by the state Department of Transportation. Its main goals, he said, are to make downtown safer and more accessible for people with disabilities.
“Goal number one is to provide critical and life-saving safety infrastructure improvements. Main Street through downtown Northampton is objectively unsafe; as measured by crash data maintained by the state, it is a high crash location. It is particularly dangerous for anybody walking by foot or by bike through downtown,” DeGray said. “It was also intended to provide accessibility for all to enjoy the experience of downtown Northampton … I will say the vast majority of that downtown is currently not in [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliance.”
DeGray’s presentation included a slide show depicting bus shelters, shorter pedestrian crosswalks, green spaces and widened sidewalks equipped with public art installations. Amid concerns previously raised by the public indicating that the project’s separated bike lanes would put cyclists at risk of being struck by turning vehicles, DeGray stressed that anyone aged “8 to 80” should feel comfortable using the bike lanes.
The Toole engineer, pointing to a diagram of the proposed Main Street bus stop and shelter in front of Pulaski Park, noted that the bike lanes will be separated by curbs that run behind the shelter. This will protect cyclists, he said.
“It takes bikes out of the road, which is where much of the vehicle conflict occurs … with this facility, you would see less direct conflict between bikes and vehicles,” DeGray said. “We’ve also heard some concern that these bike facilities have some detrimental effect to safety in terms of bikes popping out without being expected — that is not factually accurate as it pertains to separated bike lanes.”
Toole Senior Landscape Architect Stephanie Weyer, who serves as project manager for Picture Main Street, provided an overview of the redesign’s additions to the city’s tree canopy and public spaces. She noted that Toole plans to preserve 17 of the area’s 41 trees, while removing 24 and planting 61 for a planned total of 78 trees.
Weyer also presented, through a “fly-through” rendering video, changes expected from the wider sidewalks, giving businesses and restaurants additional space. She joked that with a larger sidewalk in front of City Hall, protesters would no longer have to step out into the street.
“I’m looking out at the people who really form the life of the street — there are already great things happening along Main Street that we’re just really providing a canvas for,” Weyer said. “There is going to be plenty of room for business: sandwich boards, displays, movable tables, different organizations to be able to get their things out on the street, art, color, all kinds of things.”
In response to resident-submitted questions — no one in attendance spoke against the project — about Picture Main Street’s promise of improved street lighting, Weyer explained that residents’ feedback ranged from requests for very bright lights to residents who wished to see more dim, warm-colored lighting.
Toole, Weyer explained, chose warm-tone 2,700-kelvin lights for the street, which she considered to be a compromise between those who wished for brighter light and those who wanted an even warmer tone. The selected lights, she said, would meet the standards of the “Dark Skies” bill that aims to regulate municipalities’ publicly owned streetlights to reduce light pollution and lower municipal energy costs.
“This is kind of a nice, warm light without feeling overly dim, which is another concern we heard in the last public meeting as well — there’s a little tension between those who are really trying to get kind of a more candle-like feel and those who like it brighter. This is hitting a nice warm middle spot,” Weyer said. “All of those lights … can be dimmed to different levels, dimmed in the evening past major usage time.”
The massive redesign is estimated to cost $43.3 million, a figure unchanged since the price jumped by $6 million in May from previous estimates. Of that total, $31.5 million is coming from the federal government distributed to Northampton through the state’s Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), and roughly $11.8 million in local funding.
Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2028 with water and sewer infrastructure upgrades under the roadway. Completion is estimated after four construction seasons, or in 2031.
