Pittsfield Commissioner Morales: ‘We Made No Mistake On The Tyler St. Roundabout’

Commissioner of Public Works for the City of Pittsfield, Ricardo Morales, had a chance to sit with Slater and Marjo on Wednesday morning to talk about and update the public on all that is happening on Tyler Street.

In the age of misinformation, be it hearsay that has spread around the city, or be it intentional, somehow word got out that the newly installed roundabout on Tyler St. in Pittsfield was too small and/or not suitable for tractor-trailer rigs or any vehicle of larger size. Morales, however, was on-air to debunk these rumors.

There is a mountable curb (apron) for a vehicle the size of a tractor-trailer acting sort of as a buffer for whatever the vehicle is pulling. Depending on how you enter the roundabout and where you exit the roundabout, that will determine, with a long truck for example, the trailing part of the truck will mount on the apron, that is meant to be.

The illustration below shows the mountable apron for longer vehicles.

Slater: So, is there any vehicle that cannot get through/access the roundabout?

No, none. Every vehicle can get through there. Tractor-trailers, 18 wheelers can all make use of that mountable apron.

Slater: So where did this come from that tractor-trailers can't get through the roundabout?

I don't know. Just misconceptions about what things are, I suppose. We have had multiple meetings about this and other conceptual designs, we presented the mountable apron, it is a very common detail to have everywhere there are roundabouts, some are tighter, some are wider. 

Our goal with this roundabout is to reduce speeding on Tyler St. and through the intersection of Tyler/Dalton Ave/Woodlawn Ave. We have achieved that with this design, we are seeing speeds of 20 MPH.

What we value most is getting people through that intersection safely. And that means not just for vehicles, but for everyone using that intersection, walkers, people using wheelchairs, people pushing strollers, using scooters, on bikes, etc. -Ricardo Morales