Road Closed

This is nearby in Northampton. Work has been going on here, along North Street (over at least a 200 meter stretch) for at least three months; the street has mostly been open. The projected completion date is next August, and now they are working in overdrive to temporarily finish and leave it open for the winter. Note that here are five pieces of major equipment in the shot--it's fun viewed large.

I asked a fellow on the site what they're doing--he said "Everything!" He turned out to be the engineer overseeing the work, and we had an interesting conversation.

North Street is perhaps the oldest in the town, according to him. When it was settled in the 1600's there was a palisade along it, for protection against the Indians. He estimates that some of the water and sewage lines they've replaced were from the late 1800s--they were on their last legs (so to speak :)

Edit: Somehow I managed to put the slaughter in Newtown, Connecticut out of my mind in posting this yesterday. The little town is less than 100 miles from us--all too close. As I reflect more: The killer--known to have some psychiatric problems--lived with his mother, who owned the three guns he used in the killings (perhaps more). This is more tragic evidence that we in the United States have a severe gun problem.