Marblehead Transfer Station Traffic Changes Up For Discussion

MARBLEHEAD, MA — A commissioned study of the traffic impact of shifting the access burden to the Marblehead Transfer Station to the Green Street and Woodfin Terrace neighborhoods will be up for discussion at Wednesday's Transfer Station Facility Committee meeting.

The Marblehead Board of Health in April pulled two town meeting warrants requesting a $6 million override to fund a new transfer station in favor of exploring the "Plan B" proposal that could cost a quarter of that total but will redirect traffic to the alternative access points on Green Street and Arnold Terrace.

The second proposal, which was said would cost about $1.5 million and would not require a town meeting vote for a tax override, was met with skepticism from a group of residents called the Green Street Neighbors Association, who expressed concern at April's meeting about both increased noise and air pollution from the additional trucks that would idle in their neighborhoods before and during transfer station hours.

"As designed, I believe this proposal pretty much guarantees chronic clogging on Green Street's southbound side up to West Shore Drive, and on the northbound side up past Tioga Way at least as far as Waterside Drive," Arnold Drive resident David Lieberman said in a letter to Patch in late April. "I'm glad the Board of Health voted to defer a final commitment to go forward with Plan B until they have independent verification from a formal study that it doesn't pose health and safety risks to the neighboring communities. Committing to a traffic study is a good start."

Now that the traffic study has been completed, some of those same residents are worried about what they believe the study reveals.

"It estimates that an additional 500 to 600 cars per day will travel down Green Street," Green Street Neighbors Association Angela Ellis told Patch after reviewing a copy of the study. "And that 1,100 to 1,400 cars will use the entrance road off Green Street daily, and that up to 25-30 cars
can queue up in the driveway to the dump waiting for it to open after lunch.

"All of this traffic — a significant percentage of which are large noisy trucks— will be emitting exhaust fumes that will pollute the neighborhood."

According to the meeting agenda, no formal vote on pursuing "Plan B" or requesting further revised access plans, is scheduled for the meeting, which will be held in the Mary Alley Municipal Building on Widger Road starting at 1:30 p.m. and will be available remotely on line via Zoom as well.

"Residents on Green Street, and especially on Arnold Terrace, will be extremely adversely impacted by this plan," Ellis said. "Residents on Waterside Road are also impacted as it's a shortcut to Green Street.

"Green Street is already treated like a speedway by many drivers, making it dangerous at busy times to exit my driveway, so I can only begin to imagine what an additional 1,000 cars a day will be like."

(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.)