DALTON, Mass. — The Select Board questioned the value the proposed preliminary designs of Dalton Division Road have for residents during its December meeting.

 

Steve Savaria, project manager and senior traffic engineer at Fuss & O'Neil, presented some preliminary concepts for the redesign of the roadway and intersection.

 

The New England engineering firm has been retained as the town's design consultant for this project. 

 

The project comes with challenges surrounding wetlands, state Department of Transportation requirements, and easements. To be fully compliant with MassDOT standards, the design has to include sidewalks on both sides of the road.

 

The sidewalks would have a significant impact to wetlands and private properties and issues with slopes all throughout the corridor. 

 

"We don't believe [this option] is feasible at this point," Savaria said. 

 

"So the other alternative that we have is to consolidate the bicycle and pedestrian facilities on the west side of the road in a 10-foot shared-use path and then not have sidewalks on the east side of the road to avoid the wetlands impacts that are on that side." 

 

This alternative would require that the town go through a design exception process with MassDOT.

 

But the west side of Dalton Division is in Pittsfield. 

 

"This is a problem. This is a major problem for the town of Dalton and our residents because we're funding the money for this engineering study and now we're not gonna get the value of sidewalks on our side in Dalton and Pittsfield is paying nothing to this," Select Board Chair Joseph Diver said. 

 

Diver also noted that this is a concern that Select Board member John Boyle has raised numerous times. 

 

The town has already paved the road for $300,000, which also benefited Pittsfield. 

 

Diver and Boyle agreed that Pittsfield should pay at least half the cost of the project because it benefits the city just as much as Dalton, if not more if there would only be sidewalks on the Pittsfield side. 

 

The board agreed to advocate for Concept A, which would have sidewalks on both sides, a 5-foot bike lane in the road on both sides with a buffer, and a 2-foot painted buffer between the vehicle lane and in the bike lane. They also recommended the two-way stop control option. 

 

"[Concept A] adds a million and a half to the cost, or a little less, but relative to their $2 million project, it's 10 percent of the cost," Town Manager Thomas Hutcheson said. 

 

Although the town can advocate for the design it wants, it is up to MassDOT as to which concept will be constructed. The construction is advertised for fiscal year 2028 but may change based on the yearly regional tip prioritization, Savaria said. 

 

The regional Metropolitan Planning Organization and MassDOT have endorsed this project for application of state and federal funding for construction. 

 

The construction of the project will not cost the town but it is responsible for funding the engineering at about $800,000, in addition to easement costs. 

 

There is someone at MassDOT responsible for relationships between the two municipalities, Hutcheson said.

 

This project was authorized for funding in 2016 by the MPO but was pushed down the Transportation Improvement Plan list because of incomplete engineering. The easement costs were not included in the original authorization. 

 

The "project fell through the cracks during a previous administration" but has since been revitalized with the addition of a sewer line. 

 

The designs for the roadway do not have any permanent taking of land on the Pittsfield side but there will be construction easements, temporary easements, along the whole west side of the project, Savaria said.

 

"So, I believe that would be a point of negotiation with the city of Pittsfield about who would be responsible for acquiring because those rights would be acquired in Pittsfield," he said.

 

"... the entire roadway is within Dalton. It's only the abutting properties that are in Pittsfield. So, I would say that's a good question and we should try and try and get an answer for that." 

 

Constructing sidewalks on the east side would require constructing retaining walls along significant stretches of the roadway where there are adjacent wetlands. The alternatives that avoid wetlands would present the smallest impact. 

 

In addition to the roadway, the project would look at redesigns of the intersection off Williams Street, Washington Mountain Road and Mountain Road to improve safety.

 

There are currently two alternatives for the intersection design, a roundabout and a two-way stop control. 

 

MassDOT requires that one of the intersection designs include a roundabout, which would require a permanent fee taking. 

 

The existing roadway already crosses private property so that would need to be corrected no matter what but there would be about 6,000 square feet of the lot on the corner where Shire Donuts is located.  

 

Some of the construction of the intersection will take place over the line onto Williams Street so MassDOT does view this project as being in both municipalities, Savaria said.  

 

The other alternative is the two-way stop control that does not include the need for a permanent fee taking.   

 

"We do move the intersection over kind of away from that side of the property from that corner because there's more room on the other side and also we wanted to avoid this property on the corner of Williams Street because that house is very close to the road," Savaria said.

 

There are a lot of unknowns surrounding the project, Diver said. The only thing he said they do know is that the town may be responsible for the cost of temporary easements for a project that might not benefit town residents. 

 

If MassDOT chooses the roundabout option, the town could also be responsible for the "land grab."