WESTFIELD – The Massachusetts Department of Transportation conducted an information hearing on the proposed improvements to Little River Road, the second phase of upgrading Route 187.
Work is already ongoing on the Feeding Hills Road section of Route 187 and the Little River reconstruction effort is expected to begin next spring, although there are still steps to be taken, such as securing both temporary and permanent easements, and completing environmental review procedures.
MassDOT Project Manager Shawn Holland said the information session was held because the Route 187 project was initiated in 2001, with the initial public hearing conducted at the 25 percent design and the first information hearing at the 75 percent design phase. The second information hearing, conducted Wednesday night at City Hall, was slated because the project is at the 100 percent phase.
Holland said that because the project has been underway for a decade and a half, residents of the area may have changed with the original residents selling property to the new current residents.
Residents, many of whom attended the original public hearing in 2001, commented on concern such as adequate drainage, in particular on Shaker Road, sufficient turning radii at the intersection of Shaker Road and Little River Road, sidewalk installation, road widening and the impact on residents’ property, landscaping and privacy due to the road improvement.
Installation of a traffic-control signal at the intersection of Ridgecrest Drive and Shaker Road was also discussed. A resident questioned why it was not part of the plan. City Engineer Mark Cressotti said that installation of a traffic signal is triggered by the volume of traffic. The resident responded that many residents avoid using the Ridgecrest Drive intersection and use the Laurel Avenue intersection with Shaker Road, which artificially lowers the traffic counts at Ridgecrest Drive.
Cressotti said there will be additional study on the traffic patterns to determine of a traffic light is warranted at Ridgecrest Drive.
Several Shaker Road residents, especially those along the lower section of Shaker Road near the Little River Road intersection, complained that their properties get flooded routinely during any type of rain event.
Don Schumacher of 10 Shaker Road said his lot and that of his neighbor at 20 Shaker Road, are flooded when water flowing downhill from the surrounding neighborhoods on much higher ground ends up on those properties. Schumacher requested that when the Shaker/Little River roads intersection is reconfigured, the state add a berm at the end of the driveways to prevent water from pouring down the driveways and flooding the yards.
Former City Councilor Marty Canty of 30 Shaker Road, described a similar problem, but requested a different solution. Canty suggested installation of catch basins in front of his property to divert stormwater gushing down Shaker Road into the city’s stormwater drainage system.
Schumacher, a former truck driver, also suggested that the stop line on Shaker Road at the Little River Road intersections be moved back to give school bus and truck drivers a little more room to make a turn onto Shaker Road from Route 187.
Other residents discussed the type of systems which will control traffic flow at that intersection. The current design is for trip lines installed under the pavement which detect the electromagnetic field generated by a motor vehicle. Canty suggested that cameras, which were installed at all of the other intersections where road improvements were made, also be installed at the Little River/Shaker roads intersection.
“Cameras are a more effective control system than the trip wire system,” he said.
Cressotti agreed that cameras at intersections have become the city’s standard and that they will probably be installed in that intersection as well.
Karen Axtell of the MassDOT Right of Way Bureau said that the city is responsible for securing the five permanent easements and the 41 temporary construction easements.
Axtell said the funding for the Little River Improvement project will become available after Oct. 1 of this year and that the tentative plan, if the easements and environment reviews are in place, is to advertise the project later next fall, award the contract during the winter, with construction work to begin next spring.
