WESTFIELD – The Traffic Commission discussed modification to the traffic pattern around the Great River Bridge project Wednesday night with a goal of simplifying vehicle movement between Holy Trinity Church on Elm Street and the Westwood Building on North Elm Street.
The discussion focused on modifying traffic lanes to eliminate lane shifts in the current pattern and sequencing traffic signals to improve traffic flow around what is effectively an oblong rotary.
Several residents weighed in on that discussion, making suggesting to eliminate lane shifts on Union Avenue that now confuse motorists and are being ignored, creating a potential hazard. Alvin See of Springdale Road presented a map indicating the flow pattern which he believes will increase lane options and reduce lane switches.
Union Avenue, which was a short street from the area of Fitzgerald’s Lumber and the former U.S. Post Office substation on the north bank of the Westfield River and Union Street was extended and begins now at Holy Trinity where northbound traffic splits from Elm Street.
Other suggestions include additional signage to better indicate turning lanes and patterns. Carl Vincent said that he has witnessed several motorist make a right turn from the lower section of Pochassic Street, entering the southbound traffic heading north. Vincent said that business owners in that area say the illegal turns occur frequently, as often as 20 times a week, creating the potential for head-on collisions. Vincent suggested that the commission install additional signage prohibiting that turn.
Police Chief John Camerota, chairman of the Traffic Commission, said the state needs to approve any changes to the traffic pattern design because construction of the new bridge and reconstruction of the old bridge, at a cost of more than $60 million, were funded with federal dollars.
Camerota said the commission was preparing to submit a pattern design change to the state that would eliminate lane changes on Union Avenue north of the new bridge to begin the state’s review process.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti, a member of the commission, urged the committee to wait until the Pochassic Street Bridge (informally known as the Drug Store Hill Bridge) is opened to study the impact on the traffic pattern.
“Wait until the Pochassic Bridge is open,” Cressotti said. “The proposal has merit, but my concern is that if we if we eliminate the left turn lane (from Union Avenue to lower Pochassic Street) we could be creating more of a problem in the future.”
Commission member Brian Boldini, a retired police sergeant who headed the department’s Traffic Bureau, agreed with Cressotti.
“We could see a queue of 15 cars on lower Pochassic Street, between the park and the Butcher Block, waiting to go up the hill, it will back out onto Union Avenue,” Boldini said.
“We don’t know (how the bridge opening will effect) traffic patterns or the traffic volume,” Cressotti said. “I think we should wait until the bridge opens to see how it affects the mix.”
City officials anticipate that the Pochassic Street Bridge replacement project will be completed early next year, with a possibility that it could open late in the current calendar year.
The new Pochassic Street Bridge will be able to accommodate school bus and commercial truck traffic, relieving Notre Dame Street, currently the only means of accessing Prospect Hill and Montgomery Road on which Westfield High School is located, of much of that traffic. Two or three school buses would fill the holding lanes on the lower section of Pochassic Street.
“We’re trying to make something that is good a little better,” Camerota said. “We’re looking at solutions.”
