Community members browse highway plan
Published on November 1st, 2006
READING, MA - An estimated 250 people attended a public forum on the Interchange study held last week at the Coolidge Middle School, and now state and local officials will begin to digest the comments they received from those in attendance regarding displays of preliminary plans that were shown.
The forum featured an Open House with exhibits of existing and future conditions, highway and transit options studied, and details on four highway improvement alternatives. A Presentation and question /answer period followed, along with additional time to review exhibits.
The forum was the second in a series of three open house-type events being held in the three communities most affected by any changes to the
Interchange (one was held in Stoneham back in April, and a third is tentatively scheduled to take place in Woburn sometime in December).
"Everything you see here is tentative," said Bob Frey, Manager of Statewide Planning for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation. "We hope to come back sometime in December with proposed recommendations."
Attendees at the forum were asked to sign in before entering. Once inside, they were able to move around the auditorium inside Coolidge and view four stations, which each contained displays of four different areas of the study, including diagrams of several of the proposed changes the Interchange
Task Force has been looking at. The Office of Transportation Planning (Planning) is currently working with an advisory task force on a study that evaluates and addresses transportation issues with the I-93 / I-95 Interchange in the towns of Reading, Stoneham, and the City of Woburn.
The interchange is the busiest in the state, processing over 375,000 vehicles on an average weekday. The primary goals of the planning study are to examine and recommend ways to improve traffic flow and safety at the interchange while minimizing impacts in surrounding communities. A full range of alternatives, including interchange improvements and non-highway options, will be developed and analyzed as the study progresses. A recommended plan of future transportation improvements (short-term and long-term), based on the alternatives analysis and community input, will be the end product of this study.Frey and other Planning officials meet regularly with the I-93/I-95 Interchange Task Force (ITF), which includes federal and state agencies, legislators, local elected officials, community members and groups, and other interested organizations. The ITF was created to provide a better forum for community involvement and input into the study, and in response to previous efforts by MassHighway (which had generated substantial public interest and debate over potential redesign proposals for the interchange).
A consultant team led by the Louis Berger Group (LBG) is conducting this planning study, which officially began in September 2004 and runs through December 2006. Alternatives for the Interchange are currently being developed into preliminary recommendations with the Task Force.
The plan that most representatives of the Task Force have expressed support for in recent sessions is known as H3-C, and is one of four that have been studied for several months now. It actually contains portions of three different plans and is being recommended because it addresses almost 100 percent of the concerns caused by the present interchange.
Displays of all the options were available for public viewing last night.
The three components of H3-3 are:* H-1: A short term fix that can be implemented as a part of the long term solution. It calls for a fourth lane to be added to Route 128 in both directions. Northbound the lane will start at the interchange and go to Route 129 in Wakefield. Southbound the lane will start at the Route 28 exit in Reading and go to a point south of Mishawum Road in Woburn. All of the work can be done in the existing right of way and there will be no land-takings. This will relieve the congestion in both directions along Route 128 and thus allow for an easier flow of traffic off of I-93.
* Plan H-3: Incorporates Plan H-1 and eliminates the northeast (Route 128 to I-93 south) and southwest (Route 128 to I-93 north) loop ramps. The northeast loop will be replaced with a two-lane ramp off Route 128. One lane will lead to I-93 north. The second lane will loop under I-93 and over Route 128 and bring commuters to an entry on I-93 south. The southeast loop will be replaced with a two-lane ramp off of Route 128 north. One lane will lead to I-93 south and the second lane will go under the proposed new ramp to I-93 south from 128 south and over 128 connecting with the new ramp leading from 128 south to I-93 north, This plan also calls for a reconfiguration of the present Washington Street exit off of Route 128 north.
The new exit will be further south and will require a business land taking, which would affect a Polymer Shade business as well a Kids Playground in Woburn. It will bring traffic up a road paralleling Olympia Road to Washington Street.
There will be a connecting road from the new road to Olympia Road to relieve traffic from having to go all the way to Washington Street to get onto Olympia or vice versa. Reading resident Leslie McGonagle, owner of Kids Playground, expressed her displeasure with the proposal during the public comment portion of the meeting.
"Why should people in Reading and Woburn suffer for people coming down out of New Hampshire?" said McGonagle. "Why should we worry about them?"
The new ramps at the interchange will be a combination of "flyovers" and "flyunders" (depressed roadway that is like a canyon). A collector/distributor road is also planned that will take traffic from the new Washington Street entrance to Route 128 north and allow it to go into the mainstream of traffic or go to the ramps for I-93 north and south,
All of these highway changes will be complemented by Traffic Demand Management and alternative transportation plans. These plans are designed to lessen the amount of vehicle trips that use the roadways in peak commuter hours.
One of these draft packages will ultimately become the set of proposed recommendations (which will be presented in the third public meeting in Woburn sometime in December), and will include both highway and non-highway strategies. There will continue to be substantial opportunity for Task Force and public input leading to the completion of the study, and with any subsequent environmental and design phases. In September 2002, MassHighway suspended a previous design feasibility study for this interchange, and Planning was directed to lead a revised effort with an advisory task force.
At public meetings for this previous study (in 2001 and 2002), concern was expressed over right-of-way issues. For that study, the alternatives proposed (including ramp flyovers) that best improved traffic flow and safety would have required the most property takings.
In the initial Task Force meetings, Planning outlined the revised study process and established the role of the Task Force. Planning and the Task Force worked together to develop a scope of work for the study.
Last night, officials from each community commented on how pleased they are with the current study process, when compared to the last one.
"When this issue was first presented in Reading, it was determined that it wasn't the right way to do things," said Stoneham Selectman Tony Kennedy, also a Task Force member. "What ended up happening was the consulting team was relieved of its duties, and a different Task Force was created. We've put our heads together, and we've had arguments and disagreements, but we have proven that we can work together to reach a consensus as a Task Force."
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