Selectmen Review Traffic Improvement Plan for Hartwell Avenue Area

More than 30 years after traffic changes were first proposed to the area of Hartwell Avenue between Wood and Bedford streets, the town of Lexington is once again looking to improve safety and ease congestion there. 

At last night's Board of Selectmen's meeting, Richard Bryant of Tetra Tech presented a preliminary $12.4 million plan to accomplish those goals, including by creating two "modern roundabouts" at each end of each segment: Hartwell Avenue and Bedford Street, and Hartwell Avenue and Maguire Road.

The plan also calls for reconstruction of Bedford Street between Rte. 128 and Hartwell Avenue to include a raised median, bike lanes, shoulders and sidewalks.

"What we're looking at is throughout this whole area to accommodate pedestrians, accommodate bicycles and to make the roadway safer," said Bryant. "We're doing a few things to increase capacity but we're not doing a whole lot in that regard."

Bryant said the company has considered many alternatives, and is nearing a finalized recommendation. Roundabouts, which for a long time were discouraged by the state, have come back into favor recently as studies have proven they are safer for traffic and pedestrians, although their effects on cyclists are less conclusive, he said.

"What a roundabout does it puts geometry in the roadway; traffic must slow down to navigate the roundabout," he said. "Everyone is going the same direction so the types of accidents are much safer, you may get a sideswipe but no broadside collisions, and you don't get the high speed rear-end collisions that you get with a light."

Selectman George Burnell questioned why increasing capacity was not one of the plan's primary objectives.

"We're making this the major road for this area for Massport, for the base and their expansions, for industry expansions in Lexington and in Bedford, and there is just no reason to expect that we should be pursuing commercial development and then putting in less traffic," he said. "That makes no sense at all in my view."

Bryant said capacity improvements are being made in making the area function more smoothly. Currently, the road has two lanes, but the improvements would increase it to four lanes, and the median with roundabouts for direction change would eliminate friction caused by left-hand turns, he said

"If you make all this capacity, you are making it easier for people to drive and harder for people to walk and use their bicycles," Bryant said. "Part of the reason we're leaning towards this four-lane with a median is it makes it more pedestrian-friendly. When you start going to five or six lanes people aren't going to cross the road."

Bryant added that workers in the area may want to walk to lunch, but if they need to cross a huge intersection with a lot of cars, they may choose to drive, and the area needs to become more of a destination where people can walk from point A to point B.

The entire plan is projected to cost $12.4 million, said Bryant, but the majority of the financial burden could be taken care of through federal funds distributed by the state's Transportation Improvement Project (TIP) program. The state would not pay for about $1.4 million in design and permitting components, he said.

"What we've suggested to help fund this is that the developers who are going to benefit from the re-zoning will be the guys who ultimately pay for it," said Bryant.

He suggested charging developers $3,100 per 1,000 square feet in an infrastructure improvement fee. However, Bryant also said the town may want to "prime the pump" by fronting at least some of the money first to get the project going.

"We don't want to wait for the development to happen then make the improvements, that seems backwards," he said. "You'd have the traffic, you'd have the impacts and you wouldn't have the infrastructure."

There will be a community meeting on the plan for land and business owners, residents and other members of the public to learn about the project and give feedback.

The meeting will take place on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. in Cary Memorial Hall, 1605 Massachusetts Ave.