Mass Ave/Appleton St Corridor Project - Mar 15th, 2023

From srevilak.net
Revision as of 22:50, 18 March 2023 by SteveR (talk | contribs) (initial revision)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Meeting held at town hall. Materials were available from https://www.arlingtonma.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/31631/18. The town website contains further project details: https://www.arlingtonma.gov/Home/Components/News/News/12347/16.

Tonight's meeting consists of a presentation, and a lot of time to look at maps, ask questions, and make comments.

(Claire Ricker, Planning Director) Ms. Ricker says the intersection of Mass Ave and Appleton Street was identified as an unsafe intersection in 2009. Tonight, we'll see a concept design that was developed iteratively over the last year.

(Ralph, Project Manager, Stantec) Ralph (who's last name I missed) says the project covers a larger area than a single intersection. It's a very busy area and different at different times of day. It also sits between two curves of Mass Ave. There are few pedestrian crossings and the sight lines aren't great.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that MassWorks awarded the town \$307k to work on the design. MassWorks grants are used to help municipalities make infrastructure improvements, much more quickly than the ordinary process of going through MassDOT. Once a community has been awarded a grant, MassWorks tends to support them through the rest of the project. Ms. Ricker says that we'll need the Select Board to support construction of the project.

(Ralph) Ralph says that throughout the public process, we've heard support for traffic lights, protected bike lanes, new crosswalks, and retaining as much parking as possible. Stantec is proposing a design with a separated bike lane, via repurposing part of the sidewalk. He says the design tries to be responsive to goals that were stated throughout the process.

This design would make the Lowell St/Mass Ave intersection into more of a T, along with adding a signal at Burton St. The design includes a place for everyone using the roadway, no matter who you are. Pedestrians will get protected crossing phases, and more pedestrian crossing spots. The curb rework will create several plazas, though we're still early enough in the design that their details haven't been worked out yet.

From here, participants move on to filling out written surveys and looking at maps.