Williamsburg residents demand scaled-back $13 million Mountain Street reconstruction plan

WILLIAMSBURG -- July 12, 2021, Williamsburg residents delivered two petitions opposing a $13 million MassDOT reconstruction of Mountain Street at a July 12 Select Board listening session. The project, file 607-231, would widen the 2.8-mile rural road by roughly 50 percent, from an average of 24.4 feet to a total disturbed width of 32 feet, and straighten four curves, with funding split 80 percent federal and 20 percent state. Donna Gingras, a lifelong Mountain Street resident, read a petition signed by 119 Mountain Street households and 63 Kingsley Avenue households demanding MassDOT redesign the project without widening, straightening, or curbing, and requesting that the current 10-day comment period be extended to six months. A separate petition from Haydenville Village residents warned the design would funnel heavy truck traffic into the narrow streets of the historic village. The public comment period closes July 16, and MassDOT has agreed to return to Williamsburg in August.