by Valerie Hurley ·
Friday, March 20, 2026
The long-planned renovation of Ayer Road advanced Tuesday evening as the Select Board approved some paperwork to realign two accident-prone intersections. The change to the road layout is part of the larger reconstruction project and requires approval by the Select and Planning boards, a public hearing at the Planning Board, and a vote at May’s Town Meeting.
The skewed-angle intersection of Gebo Lane and Ayer Road will be realigned to a T and a left-turn lane onto Gebo will be added. As part of that reconfiguration the front exit from the post office onto Ayer Road will be eliminated; cars will exit the post office onto Lancaster County Road and enter Ayer Road via Gebo Lane.
The other intersection slated for reconstruction is the three-way convergence of Poor Farm Road, Ayer Road, and Lancaster County Road. The short section of Lancaster County Road that is now part of that intersection will be eliminated and given over to the walking-biking path to be installed as part of the larger project. The misaligned intersection of Ayer and Poor Farm roads will be reconstructed at a right angle.
Massaachusetts Department of Transportation approved funding for the project in 2018 and unveiled plans to reconfigure the two intersections at a public hearing in 2022 when the renovation plan was 25% complete. The Select Board voted to approve that plan, with minor modifications, in June of that year.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Select Board Chair Kara Minar told members that an abutter was objecting to the road layout for the intersections. She said the public could comment in an upcoming but as yet unscheduled public hearing at the Planning Board about the new layouts.
But at this point, said member SusanMary Redinger, “This layout is not subject to abutter input.” The changes, she said, had been “clearly laid out” in the 2022 plan.
“This is a state highway,” added member Eve Wittenberg. “We don’t have the measure of control that might be thought or that we might like.”
The road layouts the board signed off on are part of the estimated $12-million reconstruction of a 1.7-mile stretch from the Route 2 interchange to the town line. It will add six crosswalks and a walking-biking path on the post office side of the road. The traffic-calming measures that some town officials and state Sen. Jamie Eldridge had championed-—including curb extensions at the crosswalks, a rumble strip, and a roundabout near the post office—were eliminated in 2023, at the 75% design stage, after MassDOT questioned the need for some of them and said incorporating others would significantly delay the project.
The federal government will pay for 80% of the renovation and the state will pay 20% of construction costs. The town must pay for the design and for easements and land-takings. Town Meeting has voted over the past several years to cover those costs and will be asked at the May 2 Town Meeting to vote on the new road layouts.