Why Is The City Building Another Roundabout In Beverly?

BEVERLY, MA -- If you travel on Essex Street you have no doubt noticed construction vehicles in the vicinity of the Exit 18 interchange near Essex Street's intersection with meadow Road. The City of Beverly expects work on building a new roundabout at the intersection to be completed by the end of the summer. That has left several Beverly drivers with one, pressing question.

"Why?" a Patch reader asked in an email. "It seems ridiculous to install another rotary when a traffic light would make more sense."

Well, for starters, traffic engineers believes the $$954,900 project will improve safety at the Essex-Meadow intersection. Last year a 28-year-old man was killed after being thrown from his car in a three-vehicle crash, but safety concerns about the interchange go back decade. Over that timeframe residents have made a number of efforts to petition the city for the installation of a traffic light there. Those efforts were complicated in part because both Essex Street is a state-owned road.

The city ultimately decided the best solution was the roundabout. And the key reason for choosing a roundabout over a traffic light is that the city believes it will be safer. Construction documents and traffic studies for the project, as well as comments made during a public meeting on the project in September, reason that roundabouts not only slow traffic as cars enter and exit, but they also reduce the chances of deadly, T-bone crashes.

Yes, the roundabout may create more backups during rush hours when drivers are making their way to and from Route 128. But at other times of the day, the road doesn't see that much traffic. As a result, much of the work is beginning after 9 am to avoid heavy delays.

The project is being paid for with a combination of city and state money. A.J. Virgilio Construction of Westfield was named the winning bidder in November.

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).