Route 2 is an abomination.
Please let me qualify that statement: part of Route 2, the section from the rotary in Greenfield just off Interstate 91 heading west to the New York border, is a lovely old road, winding through beautiful country and wonderful towns such as Shelburne, Charlemont, Savoy and Florida. When people think of the Mohawk Trail, they think of that section of Route 2—the lovely section. Sure, it’s only a two-lane highway to the west of Greenfield, which can make for some fairly hairy driving in bad weather. At this time of year, it also can be tough going just before sunset, with the glare of the autumn sun in your face. Fortunately, that section of Route 2 isn’t as heavily traveled as the section to the east of Greenfield, nor is the state highway department, and the Patrick Administration, as obviously invested in spending stimulus money here.
The section of Route 2 east of Greenfield, however, is not only an abomination, but as clear an example of the failings and misplaced priorities (yes, and grotesque hypocrisies) of our state government as there is.
Deval Patrick, of course, didn’t create the problem. In fact, he deserves some credit for targeting about $27 million for road and bridge improvements on the section of Route 2 from Gill to Athol. So do some of the others pols—Congressman John Olver, state Senators Stan Rosenberg and Stephen Brewer, state Reps. Chris Donelan and Steve Kulik—who’ve been cheerleaders for the reinvestment in Route 2.
But here’s what I say to them: you’re more than a day late and a dollar short. Long-term disregard for Route 2, the main artery connecting one of the most economically devastated parts of the state to its most prosperous and politically connected part, has created what the Boston Globe once dubbed “the forgotten Massachusetts.” The failure to bring Route 2 up to the standards of say, Route 128 around Boston—hardly a paragon, but in the name of intellectual honesty I dare not compare Route 2 to the lavishly maintained MassPike—has had a profound negative impact on communities that were already dealt near-fatal blows by the economics of globalization and the closure of factories and mills that served as main employers in the region.
But the failure goes well beyond not investing earlier in Route 2. Even now, as Patrick and Olver and Rosenberg eagerly announce the stimulus money invested in the highway, the road is a dangerous mess, with long sections torn up by construction crews and left without a break-down lane for miles, and jersey barriers narrowing an already frighteningly narrow road, where eastbound vehicles travel at 50-60 miles per hour merely inches from westbound vehicles moving at the same speed. In sections where it becomes a divided four-lane road—in Fitchburg, say, or Gardner—the problem comes from the on- and off-ramps, which are placed so close together you’d think they were designed to cause accidents, not prevent them. Heading west from Gill into Greenfield, the signs announcing the closure of the southbound exit to Interstate 91 are wholly inadequate, leaving motorists without enough notice to safely plan an alternate route. The detour for traffic hoping to go south on I-91 adds nearly 20 miles to their trip. This in the era of high gas prices and global warming.
Again, I appreciate the limited efforts Patrick and others have made to improve Route 2, though I suspect that spending stimulus money is more important to many of them than the ostensible improvements the money will buy. But if they really want to serve the people they were elected to serve, I’d give them this advice. Before you start patting yourselves on the back, you might want to do what I just did: drive from Greenfield to Interstate 495 through towns like Orange and Wendell and Gardner, Leominster and Fitchburg. And don’t just do it on a bluebird day with the sun over your shoulders, behind the wheel of a well-maintained $40,000 automobile or in the back of a limo. Do it when it’s pouring buckets and the wind is howling, in the same kind of car you’d expect one of the “working poor” constituents you talk about so much to be driving.
Better yet, since every politician panders to the elderly, you should try riding Route 2 as a passenger in a vehicle owned and operated by somebody age 65 or older, somebody whose night vision isn’t what it used to be, someone living on a fixed income that isn’t large enough to buy new tires and brake pads whenever they need them.
And when your white-knuckle ride is over, call your friends in the highway department and tell them that, tight budgets or no, the condition of Route 2 is unacceptable.
