image description — Juniper bushes that were removed near the junction of Lawrence Hall Drive on the Williams College campus and Main Street will be replaced by plants to be determined.

Williams College Projects Underway on Main Street

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
06:15PM / Wednesday, July 09, 2025Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A busy summer construction season around town got a little busier this week with the advancement of two unrelated projects near the Williams College Museum of Art.

Both the entrance and exit to Lawrence Hall Drive are seeing some changes in the coming weeks.

Earlier this summer, the college removed several large juniper bushes near the east side of Lawrence Hall Drive (the exit onto Main Street) as part of a larger project to make the area more safe for pedestrians.

"The College is replacing broken and deteriorating sections of sidewalk that are a safety issue," Williams Horticulture and Grounds Manager Tim Roberts wrote in an email responding to an inquiry about the work. "The old junipers have been damaged over time and constantly need to be pruned back off the sidewalk.

"I will be replacing the junipers with a plant to be determined later. The walkway will be widened three feet using a crushed stone material to accommodate large trucks that use this entry."

Roberts said the existing junipers in the Town Green needed to be removed to allow for the sidewalk widening.

He said, depending on weather, that the project should take about two weeks.

This week, a different construction projection got under way on the other end of the Lawrence Hall Drive loop.

The college is rebuilding and expanding the existing BRTA bus stop at the site to also accommodate Peter Pan buses, which are set to change their route from the historical drop-off/pickup site in front of the former site of the Williams Inn on the Field Park rotary.

Tags: bus routes, Williams College, Williams College Museum of Art,

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Williamstown Studying Major Overhaul for Main Street

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:14AM / Wednesday, July 29, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The town is working with a Worcester civil engineering firm to redesign Main Street with an eye toward a major project sometime in the next decade.

Community Development Director Andrew Groff was before the Select Board on Monday night to talk about Town Hall's use of a $500,000 state grant to do preliminary design on major improvements to that portion of Route 2 that runs from Water Street west to the Field Park rotary, through the middle of Williams College's campus.

Groff introduced the elected officials to Amanda Bazinet of Worcester's Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, who is helping the town to develop a plan for Main Street that would align with the commonwealth's Complete Streets Program.

"Our project goals, in addition to the increased pedestrian and bicycle accommodations, is just, in general, improving the sightlines and improving the intersection geometry," Bazinet said.

"Complete Streets … has a lot of different facets to it. As Andrew had mentioned, the goal is to improve the safety for all of the roadway users — not just the motorists. We're looking at improving it for pedestrians, bicyclists, anyone using a mobility device. We want to create streets that are safe for all ages and abilities to use. So, while bicyclists will still be allowed, legally, to use the roadway, we want to look at providing a separate bicycle accommodation along the corridor, whether it's a shared use path along both sides of the streets that is a little more accessible to young children or older people with disabilities to look at all transportation options."

One goal is to encourage "active transportation." The Massachusetts Department of Transportation, who the town hopes one day might fund the construction, has a "healthy transportation policy," Bazinet said.

That MassDOT funding would come through the Transportation Improvement Program, which is managed locally by the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission. The design work underway now is being done with an eye toward going after TIP funding years down the road.

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