NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - The city’s Main Street Redesign Project, meant to expand sidewalks, create new public space, and add protected bike lanes is now delayed, with city leaders saying they’re aiming to get it into the state’s fiscal year 2027 transportation improvement plan.

Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra said the hold-up is partly due to testing on Main Street to confirm where utilities are located, including Eversource, and they’re still waiting on results.

She said the project was supposed to hit 100 percent design back in December and while that didn’t play out, the mayor said they plan on reaching that milestone soon, “there has been a delay in the project, but we are hopeful that we are going to move forward and be on the fiscal year 27 transportation improvement plan for the state. We have had to do some tests on main street to check where the utilities are for Eversource and we’re still waiting on the results of that so there has been a delay,” Mayor Sciarra said.

But for some local business owners, the delay is a chance to take another look at how the project could impact traffic and parking, especially with the plan removing 57 parking spaces.

Western Mass News spoke with Northampton business owner Amy Mager, she said the only real “trial run” on how the redesign would affect businesses happened during covid when there were far fewer cars on the road. Mager said she’s worried about what this could mean for patients trying to reach her office and even emergency access if traffic backs up, “this is making huge changes to the community and losing 57 parking spaces is going to have a huge negative impact that is spoken about as if it’s no problem. Route 9, Main Street is a highway. What’s going to happen when somebody can’t get to the hospital because they have to take an alternate route because of the traffic and somebody will.”

Mager told us she wants to see another trial run take place, so the city can make sure the plan still makes sense for today’s traffic levels.