WESTFIELD – City Engineer Mark Cressotti presented the plans for the Western Avenue road and infrastructure improvements to his colleagues on the Traffic Commission Thursday night.
The Traffic Commission is comprised of Cressotti, Chief Police John Camerota, Public Works Superintendent Jim Mulvenna, and two citizens, Thomas Liptak appointed to represent the interests of the business community, and retired police sergeant and traffic bureau supervisor Brian Boldini appointed to represent the interests of residents. Boldini is a resident of Park Drive, a residential street off Western Avenue and was present as a citizen at the Nov. 14, 2012 meeting on the initial design which occurred prior to his appointment to the commission.
Cressotti said there have been several modifications to the plan presented at the Nov. 14, 2012 public meeting held at the Highland Elementary School.
A public informational meeting on the design and modifications incorporated as a result of citizen comments made at the November meeting, is slated for 7 p.m. on June 17, 2013 at the South Middle School auditorium.
The project encompasses reconstruction of 2.7 miles of the roadway with a number of enhancements to improve traffic flow and increase vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian safety.
Those improvements are intended to relieve bottlenecks at choke points along Western Avenue where vehicles attempting to make left turns stop traffic. The choke points include the Lloyd Hill intersection, as well as westbound traffic on Western Avenue turning into Stanley Park and eastbound traffic turning into the Woodward Center.
Cressotti said that one major change to the plans is the installation of a traffic light at Lloyds Hill Road with a dedicated left turn lane for east bound traffic as requested by residents.
Several other dedicated left turning lanes will be incorporated as part of the reconstruction project.
A dedicated eastbound left-turn lanes at the Woodward Center and the Horace Mann administration building. There will be westbound dedicated left-had turning lanes installed at the main entrance of Stanley park and the Stanley Park athletic entrance.
Other modifications include installation of two pedestrian crosswalk lights to alert motorists of walkers entering the roadway. One will be situated in front of the Juniper Park Elementary School for students, bot the current elementary children and Westfield State University students walking to the South Parking lot. The other pedestrian signal will be located near the Woodward Center and the Stanley Park athletic fields to give pedestrian access across Western Avenue.
The intersection of Bates Road and Upper Western Avenue will be modified, A right-turn from Upper Western Avenue will be constructed to intersect with Bates Road and controlled by a stop sign, replacing the current merging traffic situation. A section of Upper Western Avenue, at the current intersection, will be abandoned.
Another modification identified by residents will be the replacement of the five-foot-wide sidewalk on the south side of Western Avenue with a multi-use path. Cressotti said the standard for multi-use paths is 10 feet in width, but the city is seeking an exemption from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to install an eight-foot wide path.
Residents whose property abuts the current sidewalk are responsible for clearing it of ice and snow, but, Cressotti said, the city will maintain the wider multi-use path which is intended for use by both pedestrians.
That multi-use path will extend from Laura Drive to the intersection of Granville Road and will be separated from the street by a grass strip.
The current temporary signal at the WSU commuter lot will be moved eastward to align with Westwood Drive and replaced with a permanent traffic signal.
The commission members discussed other possible options to relieve traffic congestion. One option discussed was closing Broadway at the Western Avenue intersection, creating a long cul-de-sac. Several members of the commission, including Chief Camerota, felt that a better option would be to make Broadway a one-way street north and Kensington Avenue one-way south.
Camerota suggested that the commission conduct a meeting with residents of those two streets before adopting either option.
“I’d like to bring the Broadway, Kensington people into this discussion,” Camerota said.
