WESTFIELD – City residents will have an opportunity to review, and comment on, design changes incorporated into the Western Avenue reconstruction project at the public hearing that will be held at 7 p.m. in the South Middle School cafeteria.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti said this morning that there have been several modifications to the plan presented at the Nov. 14, 2012 public meeting held at the Highland Elementary School. More than 200 residents of the Western Avenue neighborhood packed into the small gym of Highland School to hear details of the proposed reconstruction of roadway efforts now being developed.
The residents provided a range of input, and often conflicting ideas, at the hearing.
“We’ve made corrections and changes based upon the public input from the first hearing,” Cressotti said. “I don’t think we’ll ever get 100 percent acceptance for any plan, but I do think we have a good product to put forward.”
“Tonight we will review those changes. I don’t anticipate more in the way of significant changes,” Cressotti said. “I think we’ve addressed the public concerns, that we have a good product to send forward to the state (Department of Transportation).”
The DOT will review the project as presented by the city and its consultants, then schedule another public hearing next fall or winter to review the 25 percent design.
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 lane 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, for 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 will be 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 DOT 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 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 Traffic Commission is also considering action to tweak the road redesign to further relieve traffic congestion. One option under consideration would be to make Broadway a one-way street north and Kensington Avenue one-way south.
