At a crucial stretch of West Street – the artery that runs through one of Pittsfield’s most densely populated neighborhoods – traffic heading into the heart of the city spills down a hill past a public park and an affordable-housing complex. Two deadly collisions in 2023 prompted community outcry and municipal action. The first crash involved a 30-year-old mother crossing the street with her young daughter.
“We had the tragic loss of Shaloon Milord, and that put in motion the work on West Street in a faster track," Commissioner of Public Works Ricardo Morales told WAMC. "So, in essence, the community came together after this occurred, and we took to pen to paper to start designing how we want this stretch of road to be in order to prevent any future tragic incidents.”
Morales said multiple community meetings helped Pittsfield leaders develop a plan to make West Street safer through two avenues -- slowing traffic speed and bolstering protections for pedestrians.
“We have a design that narrows the travel lane, pinches the visibility, the focal point of a driver narrows down, so your driving cone reduces, and now you're driving at slower speeds," he explained. "It's something that triggers that slower thinking part of our brains to become proactively thinking about what we're doing when we're behind the wheel, and therefore start to pay more attention. We're adding raised crosswalks. So, these are vertical deflections that contribute to traffic calming in the road in the form of raised crosswalks at key locations, one of them being in front of the park where Shaloon Milord had been hit. And we're also adding, after some debating with the community, we're also adding a signal at the intersection of West Street with where it turns and continues on to West Street.”
Additional changes include wider sidewalks, shared paths and improved drainage. The project has been funded to the tune of around $3.4 million.
“The construction is in the $2 million range, with some contingencies," said Morales. "And then we have some design costs that have been incurred, and some engineering administration costs that will be funded through that same funding scheme. We have monies set aside from the state in the way of a grant for Shared Streets and Spaces for rapid flashing beacons. We have some money set aside by the legislature, $200,000 that will go in towards supporting the project, very likely, just all of it going towards the street the signal. And we also have local support by the city council adopting $2 million for the project.”
Morales says the West Street work is part of broader safety measures taking place across Berkshire County’s largest community.
“We have been implementing similar concepts in a different in different locations, like on Tyler Street, we had a raised intersection, we have made improvements on signals in other parts. We have a raised crosswalk on Holmes Road," he told WAMC. "On North Street, we are avidly discussing the situation with the bike lanes, and this project includes all of those things.”
The commissioner says Pittsfield expects to be done with the West Street project by midsummer next year.
