Truck scalping bridge strikes again!

South East Street bike path overpass

No, not the Snell Street bridge that is being replaced next year at a $1 million cost while only growing a few inches taller, no wider and closing a busy road for many months; the other bike path overpass a mile-and-a-half or so to the south east on/over, naturally, South East Street.

That one too has a low clearance, but at 10 feet still matches what the Snell Street Bridge will rise to after the state spends $1 million.

On Sunday around dusk, a new-to-the-area driver piloting a Ryder rental truck was jolted by the sudden piercing screech of metal scraping metal. A confrontation the bridge, even as old as it is, always seems to win.

Save the trees, damn the bike path

So the illustrious town Select Board voted last night to oppose a waiver from, you know, the state on widening--but mainly repairing/rehabilitating--the Norowottuck rail trail which produces flat tires way quicker than those industrious beavers build dams.

Years ago the state built the bike path using recycled glass. Except they forgot to grind up the glass. Did not take long for shards to work their way up threw a thin layer of asphalt and wreak havoc on tires that require air pressure. Gotta wonder if it was the same engineering firm that designed the $10 million Umass heating plant that never threw a BTU of heat.

Finally, they want to make amends and do the job right. And since it is kind of a sunk cost getting construction equipment into out-of-the-way areas, they figured why not expand the width of the bike path by 25% creating a safer travel experience for more people.

Not in the People's Republic of Amherst. Losing trees is just too much to bear. So we will have more delays, more expenditure of tax money and eventually the job will get done--beavers and trees notwithstanding.

As usual the 45 minute meeting with this item the only one on the agenda was almost entirely one-sided, although Princess Stephanie did allow 45 seconds for another viewpoint. Hardly fair and balanced.