Beverly Police Patrols Helping Ease Closed Bridge Traffic Troubles

BEVERLY, MA — Increased police traffic enforcement patrols are beginning to ease at least some of the speeding and safety concerns of Beverly residents in the neighborhoods most affected by the Hall-Whitaker Bridge closure, Ward 1 City Councilor Todd Rotondo said this week.

While all Beverly residents have been told to brace for a decade or more of added traffic congestion and aggravation as the city seeks to replace the closed Hall-Whitaker Bridge and reinforce and replace the deficient Kernwood Bridge, those in the Ryal Side area of the city have repeatedly expressed more immediate concerns about perceived speeding and disregard for traffic laws among the increased number of drivers cutting through their neighborhood.

Mayor Mike Cahill said the bulk of a $100,000 grant included in the recent $3.8 billion state economic development bill will go toward hiring a third traffic police officer whose job, in part, will be to focus on the areas most affected by the alternating bridge closures that state transportation officials said may be ongoing for most of the next 13 years.

Rotondo said at this week's City Council meeting that he has worked with Beverly Police Chief John LeLacheur on more immediate measures — such as increased patrols, signage and traffic data collectors — with at least some positive results.

"They are looking for there to be more police there to be a presence," Rotondo said of the neighborhood residents. "The phone calls that I am getting now are that they are seeing people being pulled over. (Drivers) are being challenged with what they are doing (and potential violations).

"It's gotten better. The only real solution is for the bridge to be open."

While Cahill said during a neighborhood traffic meeting last month that there was nothing the city could really do to prevent drivers from cutting through the neighborhoods, City Councilor At-Large Hannah Bowen this week suggested programs that might "take single-occupancy car trips in Ryal Side and downtown off the roads."

"Whether that's bike share, whether that's shuttle trips, whether that's anything that we're talking about doing to improve traffic flow downtown on Elliott Street and Ryal Side in any way that could address the pain points in the area," she said.

After Thanksgiving, the city began closing Kernwood Heights near the elementary school from 7:30 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. on school days, which Rotondo said this week "has proven to be pretty beneficial."

Additional short-term mitigation measures include a new crosswalk on Woodland Avenue and upgraded "smart" traffic lights on order designed to improve the traffic flow on Elliott Street.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)