Exit 19: Summary of June 14 Meeting and Comments Posted Online

A summary of the June 14 public meeting and comments has been posted to interchange19.org, along with comments submitted online and by email.

One question and response does not appear to have been transcribed accurately:

Question: Can the engineers quantify the time savings from more expensive alternatives? Maureen answered that time savings from some of the build alternatives are four minutes along the Route 5/10 corridor and six minutes along the Route 9 corridor.

On review of the video (see below), Maureen appears to actually say that the engineers estimate that travel times will increase by four and six minutes over the forecast period, and that building a full interchange at Exit 19 will reduce those times by two minutes.

See also:

Video: Exit 19 Public Meeting, 6/14/10; $10 Million to Save Two Minutes
The presenters estimate that the full-access interchange concepts (C15, C15A, C18) have the potential to shave two minutes off the time it takes to exit the highway and reach the center of downtown Northampton (see video starting at 1:17:00). These concepts are estimated to cost from $12.8 million to $35.0 million. The concepts preferred by the Project Advisory Committee (C12-C13C), are estimated to cost $3 million or less. The PAC includes local citizens.

Exit 19 Presentation for June 14 Meeting: Comparing the Concepts
In preparation for the June 14 public meeting on Exit 19 (6pm, Bridge Street School Cafeteria), the Massachusetts Department of Transportation has made available its presentation (PDF, 34MB) and Summer 2010 Fact Sheet (PDF) for download…

These slides from the presentation appear to show that Concepts 13A, 13B and 13C reduce delays to a similar extent as Concepts 15, 15A, 16, 17 and 18, but with a much lower impact on the surrounding neighborhood and a much lower cost.

Gazette: “Consultants air designs for Exit 19 improvements” (6/14/10)