More than a month after reviewing the 25% design plan for the reconstruction of Ayer Road, the Select Board continues to struggle with the plan’s lack of traffic-calming measures and how best to address that deficit.
Whether the design can be changed without substantially affecting the funding and timing of the project, which is scheduled to begin in 2026, is the question the board seeks to answer before voting on the 25% plan. With any luck, the results of a traffic study initiated last week and the board’s outreach to state officials may soon yield information the board needs to make its decision.
A breakdown in communication among town officials prevented the board’s input to the 10% plan from being incorporated into the plan now under consideration, and changes are not allowed after the 75% stage. Consequently, Town Administrator Tim Bragan told the Press, “getting it right” is particularly important now. Design plans get a public hearing at the 10, 25, and 75% stages of completion. The board voted unanimously in December 2020 to accept the 10% plan.
Efforts to modify the design started with a meeting on April 21 among Select Board Chair Stu Sklar, Bragan, and MassDOT officials. Then, the board sent a letter to funding decision-makers at the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission, April 27, asking the extent to which funding and scheduling would be affected by changes to the design. Another letter to MassDOT, yet to be sent, will ask for specific alterations.
Fear of missing out on funding
“We are treading carefully,” Sklar said, acknowledging that board members are worried about losing funding for the estimated $10 million project, which will be paid for through the federal Transportation Improvement Program, or TIP, with 80% federal and 20% state monies. The town pays for design costs estimated to be between $300,000 and $375,000 and also pays for whatever land-takings are necessary.
Sklar said the project has been in line for funding since 2018 and the board preferred to avoid delays. But, he said, the plan’s lack of traffic-slowing measures is a problem.
Included on the list of complaints, assembled over several Select Board meetings, were the apparently rigid measurements for lanes, shoulders, and for the walking-biking path and buffer strips. The ability to narrow some of those elements at certain points on the road–especially at the curve near Doe Orchards—is needed to slow traffic and could have the added benefit of reducing land-takings, the board agreed. Also flagged as a safety issue are the six painted, flashing-light crosswalks in the plan that are unenhanced by curb extensions or refuge islands.
Bragan’s comment at the April 26 meeting that curb extensions made plowing difficult prompted board member Alice von Loesecke to suggest islands instead, though she added, “Is it really such a problem in plowing the bump-outs?” Member Rich Maiore said: “I get that snowplowing [near a curb extension] is an inconvenience. But what’s really inconvenient is trying to take a left from Myrick onto Ayer.”
Results of traffic study coming soon
Another traffic management tool with traffic-calming properties, a roundabout, has been a hot topic at previous meetings, but discussion last week was cut short when Sklar announced that a MassDOT traffic study would soon be complete. Traffic volume from that study could provide the data the board needs to determine whether the roundabout should have been ruled out in the first place, he said.
According to the software tools MassDOT uses to design intersections, the points of conflict on Ayer Road warrant realignment and stop signs, not a roundabout. Several Select Board members, however, disputed the traffic projections that factored into that decision, based as they were on a 2019 traffic study, and argued the roundabout would slow speeding vehicles and avoid the necessity for stop lights in the future. The one-lane roundabout on Route 70 in Lancaster would be comparable to the one that had been considered for Harvard, but with fewer entry points, Sklar told the Press.
At last week’s meeting, Bragan was skeptical that this latest traffic count could resurrect the roundabout, noting that MassDOT built a yearly 1.8%-2% traffic increase into its design, based on the 2019 counts.
In wrapping up discussion at the April 26 meeting, Sklar said that absent the federally funded TIP, which is managed by the state through MassDOT and its regional policy arm, Montachusett Regional Planning Commission, the town could repave and fix drainage for perhaps $4 million of its own money. But that would be without shoulders, the shared-use path on the post office side of Ayer Road, buffer strips, or crosswalks—not as good a deal as the TIP, he said. Still, he added, “I’d like to see this plan have a more local sensibility—it should be more than just a plan to move traffic.”
State Sen. Jamie Eldridge told the Press this week that he has heard from residents who share the Select Board’s concern that the road’s design prioritizes traffic and compares unfavorably to the recently completed Route 111 renovations in Boxborough and West Acton. Those projects, Eldridge said, were funded by state and local initiatives, not with the federal dollars of the TIP. Influencing the design on a TIP is more difficult, he said, but he has spoken to Sklar and is ready to assist as he can with “direction from the town.”
The board’s letter to the MRPC asked for a response by May 11 or 12 so it could, according to the letter, “make final decisions regarding this project ” at its May 17 meeting.
