WESTFIELD – The Traffic Commission will recommend to the City Council that the traffic study to consider making Kensington and Broadway one-way streets be terminated.
Police Chief John Camerota, commission chairman, reported that the results of a 48-hour traffic count were too high to revamp the traffic on the two residential streets under the Western Avenue Improvement Project.
“The numbers are astronomical,” Camerota said. “During a 48-hour period there were 3,285 vehicles on Kensington and 2,335. Taking that volume of traffic and putting it on one street doesn’t make sense, so we’re recommending to the City Council that we not go forward.”
There has been consideration of making Kensington Avenue a one-way street southbound and making Broadway a one-way street northbound to reduce traffic congestion at the Lloyds Hill intersection of Western Avenue as part of the road improvement effort.
Residents of the Western Avenue neighborhoods have packed three public meeting to hear details of the road reconstruction plan to voice opposition to elements, such as making Kensington and Broadway one-way streets
Other features of the proposed project include installing a traffic light at the top of Lloyds Hill Road, which would be widened at that intersection to provide two southbound turning lanes, one left and one right, onto Western Avenue.
Currently, phase 1 of the improvement project, being funded with a federal $2.5 earmark originally approved for the university road project down from the campus to Russell Road, and with city money of between $1 and $1.5 million will only encompass the section of Western Avenue between Lloyds Hill Road and Laura Drive.
Phase 1 includes installation of conduits and wiring for a traffic light at Lloyds Hill and Laura Drive, but not the actual traffic signals because of the expense. Those signals could be installed later as deemed necessary.
Later phases will be improvements from Lloyds Hill eastward to the intersection of Mill, High, and Court streets, while another phase will be improvements from Laura Drive to Bates Road.
In other business, Ward 6 Councilor Christopher Crean spoke during public participation to request that the commission investigate the use of Springdale Road, between Holyoke Road and Westfield Industrial Road, by school buses.
“Apparently they are using it as a short cut to avoid the intersection of Holyoke Road and North Elm Street,” Camerota said. “We agreed to look into the issue and will contact the School Department to determine the official route and with the bus contractor to see if there is a reason for the buses going up Springdale Road. It might be the safest route.”
Bus traffic uses the traffic light at the Massachusetts Turnpike to make a left turn onto the southbound lane of North Elm Street instead of attempting to cut across the two northbound traffic lanes at The Holyoke Road intersection, a difficult task during peak traffic periods.
