Peabody Takes First Step To Reduce Central Street Crashes

PEABODY, MA -- City Council gave the go-ahead earlier his month to start design of a $9.7 million project that will overhaul Central Street from the Walnut Street intersection to Wilson Square. The overhaul would cover a one-mile stretch of Central Street and would include road resurfacing, new sidewalks, crosswalks, traffic signals and landscaping.

The vote by Peabody City Council awarded a $470,000 contract to WorldTech Engineering of Woburn to complete the design. While the city needs to pay for the design work, state and federal money would pay for the construction.

WorldTech completed a traffic study and identified Wilson Square and the Tremont Street intersection as problem areas that were prone to car crashes on Central Street. The company said 27,000 cars travel on Central Street each day. Between 2012 and 2016 there were more than 100 accidents just in Wilson Square.

"This was a huge design, it will take a year to complete and during that time there will be a number of community meetings with residents, with businesses and interested stakeholders in the Central Street corridor," Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt told the Salem News, which first reported this city. "We will have a number of public meetings to get people's ideas and feedback."

For more on this story, see the Salem News. Subscribe to Peabody Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Patch file photo of Central and Walnut Street intersection.

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