Route 9 Hazards Targeted

Source: Union-News (Springfield, MA)

Author: MARLA A. GOLDBERG

GOSHEN, MA – A small section of Route 9 here that town officials say say is a frequent site of accidents, may eventually be improved by the state Highway Department.

“We are considering some changes in there, and we will be meeting with the town,” Chrysa Meyers, a Highway Department spokesperson said yesterday. Meyers said the road work is only in the preliminary planning stage, and that it might not get under way for three or four years.

Williamsburg selectmen are scheduled to meet Feb. 17 with Rudyard Longton, acting director of the department’s District 1, and with State Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, to discuss Route 9 and a variety of other road and bridge projects.

Representatives of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, and Williamsburg Police Chief Ernest A. Hendricks, Highway Superintendent Roger Bisbee, as well as Conservation Commission and Planning Board members have been asked to attend.

Goshen Mountain

The section which officials in Williamsburg and Goshen say needs work is about two miles long, on a hill commonly known as Goshen Mountain.

Williamsburg Selectman Kathryn Warner said the problem area starts at the intersection of Hyde Hill Road and continues west to the Goshen town line.

Hendricks said there have been many accidents on the stretch in recent years, including four fatalities in the last five years.

A total tally of accidents at the site wasn’t available yesterday, but Hendricks said there are sometimes as many as 10 accidents there yearly. Most of the cars involved, he said, go off the road and strike trees or rocks.

Goshen Fire Chief Francis Dresser, who is also head of the ambulance squad, said there is a section of the road which people call “Dead man’s curve,” that needs to be straightened and widened.

“There should be another lane,” he said, adding that the narrow road makes it difficult for the ambulance squad to attend to injured people there.

At a meeting of Williamsburg selectmen Monday, Warner said she had heard that the state was considering relocating a portion of Route 9, or possibly installing a truck lane.

Dresser said he has met with state highway officials in the past to ask for major improvements to the road, but was told the project was too expensive. Instead, he said, more minor work was done, like resurfacing and tree removal.

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