"Take it down."
That was the message that Chris Reed, a Boston urban planner, repeated recently to dozens of people about the Massachusetts Highway 2/Mohawk Trail overpass, or Veterans Memorial Bridge, as the best way to reconnect key parts of downtown North Adams.
During an event at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary (MASS MoCA) in North Adams on Dec. 12, 2025, Reed presented the results of a report compiled by his firm, Stoss Landscape Urbanism. The report concluded that dismantling the failing bridge would create more space, encourage walkability and encourage new development.
But he emphasized, doing so will take money and cooperation at all levels.
The roadway overpass should be removed to "restitch the community back together," starting with re-extending and condensing Veterans Memorial Drive and the roads adjacent to the bridge. North Adams has too many big roads and parking lots that "threaten the safety of pedestrians and create an atmosphere of isolation," according to the report, and it should look back to the "smaller scale" street networks erased by urban renewal.
"This bridge had an extraordinarily negative impact on this city," Reed said at the recent gathering. "The hope for future development that never came wiped the heart of this community in a way that is quite extraordinary and unsurpassed in many of the cities and towns we work with."
North Adams, MASS MoCA and local partners commissioned a yearlong feasibility study conducted by Stoss examining whether to repair, replace or remove the bridge. The study was paid for by a $750,000 grant from the state's Reconnecting Communities pilot program, which prioritizes transportation projects that restore connections to neighborhoods harmed by past infrastructure decisions.
North Adams was one of the only rural communities — and the smallest one by population — to receive a grant, the Berkshire Eagle reported Dec. 15.
The executive summary and entire report, available to the public on the city's website, includes visuals of how the overpass splits the downtown area. Reed called the current downtown landscape a "series of islands" and noted that many roads near the overpass are bigger than they need to be and built for truck sizes that no longer exist.
The study also found that there can be a parking surplus of more than 1,000 spots in the city even during peak times.
Resident Desiree Taylor agreed and told the Eagle that oftentimes the surplus spots were in places that did not need parking, which Reed said Stoss also noticed.
According to the report, North Adams was the only community "west of Athol" where Mass. 2 (known to locals as Route 2) is four lanes wide when running through a downtown. In other communities along the roadway, "two lanes are sufficient to carry the vehicular traffic that passes along it," the study found.
"That is too much road for what is going through here," Reed said.
"Complicated" traffic patterns created by urban renewal made, in some cases, intersections with up to five converging roads, the report added.
It pointed out that intersections like Route 2 at Holden Street and Route 2 at Eagle Street "utilize a complicated signaling plan that uses multiple signal cycles, increasing vehicle delay and queuing on many approaches."
In addition, the study showed that incomplete street grids make it hard for large trucks to navigate additional city streets to get to the overpass heading westbound. This discourages walking, biking and other community activity in a large section of downtown as well.
Reed said that North Adams businesses along the corridor are struggling due to that lack of foot traffic, but more people need to feel safe about walking downtown to increase pedestrian use.
Bridge's Removal Could Help to ‘Restitch" Downtown North Adams
Since her first day on the job in 2021, Mass MoCA Executive Director Kristy Edmunds said she has been in discussions about how to tackle the overpass, which was built in 1959 and soars directly west over the museum's campus.
The recent study by Stoss is a step toward changing the bridge, she said, and was a win for community voices. Indeed, the landscape planning firm received input from more than 500 people.
"When we start to normalize something that is a deep and profound scar, we also end up normalizing a kind of pessimism that … community [voices] may not actually be able to move the needle," Edmunds said. "This moves the needle. It moves it from ‘It's too daunting, it'll never happen,' to ‘It's possible, here is a way forward.'"
Reed said knocking the overpass down offers a "once in a lifetime" chance to change the fabric of the city and had recommendations for how to "restitch" downtown North Adams.
Among them was the city could create riverfront recreation, pedestrianize chunks of road that are too large for the volume of cars it serves and make room for more mixed-use development.
To that end, Stoss recommended closing part of Center Street around Veterans Memorial Park to "create a new waterfront plaza" along the Hoosic River, which snakes through the center of town.
"I'm really happy this happened," said Dawn Nelson, who has lived in the Eclipse Mill artist lofts for 20 years and has attended as many community meetings for the study as she could. "I will be here for the rest of my life, so I'd like to see it be as vibrant as it can be."
North Adams Mayor Jennifer Macksey was in full support of removing the overpass but reminded an excited crowd that it was just the beginning of a process to remove the structure.
In the meantime, a $20 million repair funded by the 2026 Massachusetts Transportation Improvement Program is required, since a temporary fix next summer does not provide enough time to implement the study's recommendations.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) will oversee the repair, which is expected to go out to bid in the spring.
Now, the city will need to find funding for Stoss' recommended changes and fund more traffic studies on what the urban planning firm's recommendations would change, which Macksey said is already in the works.
"We can't take the bridge down until we figure out traffic," she said.
