WHITMAN – It’s all about balance.
The town’s DPW, and the state Department of Transportation, are envisioning a balance of different needs by roadway users for more comfortable accommodations for bikes, pedestrians, motorists and transit users along a stretch of South Avenue – linking them all together.
“We’re looking to improve safety, promoting traffic to travel through efficiently, as it currently does, but making sure motorists are traveling at a safe travel speed,” said Principal Engineer Jim Fitzgerald of Environmental Partners. “The project, in general would [also] invigorate the local economy in that area. Complete streets projects have been proven to really provide a boost to local economies and allow for redevelopment with all the placemaking opportunities to be had with a project like this.”
Visual alerts to the presence of pedestrian crossings or a cyclist in the roadway are also safety goals.
Whitman’s DPW Commissioners, meeting with the Select Board Tuesday, April 9, provided an update on the South Avenue reconstruction project.
Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski said the update was billed as a joint meeting, even though not all the DPW Commissioners were present.
“We needed to say [it was a] joint meeting just in case anybody else showed up,” he said.
DPW Commissioners Chair Kevin Cleary said the South Avenue Corridor Improvements project has been discussed by the Commissioners for about two years, as a MassDOT Transportation Improvement Project (TIP) effort, a five-year program, in which the state’s transportation department would fund and manage, with the town funding only the engineering and right-of-way side of it. The potential timeline could see it ready for bidding by July 2030.
“It’s a multi-year process,” Cleary said. “The good news is we got accepted and approved to continue the process with MassDOT and we do have an article coming up on Town Meeting to continue funding that engineering and design [phase] and we just wanted to share with the board where we’re at, including next steps and the timeline.”
Fitzgerald and Senior Project Manager Benny Hung with Environmental Partners began by tracing the project timeline from the initial visioning in February 2018 to the present. The firm had also presented it to MassDOT.
“They were very supportive of the project and what it stands for,” Fitzgerald said before the department’s Project Review Committee which approved it for the TIP process.
Under the project, about one mile of South Avenue from Commercial Street to Plymouth Street will focus on multi-modal accommodations that are “safe and comfortable for all users, whether they be motorists, walkers, bikers or transit users,” according to Fitzgerald.
Land uses along the corridor involve a mix of residential amd commercial properties.
“A lot of residential development surrounds this area, but when you think about the ease of walking, or the close distance between residential neighborhoods and the Commuter Rail station, for instance, it’s really a lot of benefits that could be had from this project,” he said. “The project also stands to address or improve – or allow for – redevelopment in the area.”
Safety is also an issue, as Fitzgerald noted there are a few areas along the South Avenue corridor where a “significant amount of crashes have occurred,” including adjacent to the train tracks by the station that falls within the top 5 percent of statewide crashes as well as other locations with a significant number of crashes involving injuries.
“Certianly the intersection of South Avenue at Franklin and Pleasant streets is one that could stand to have some improvements made to it,” he said. “Instead of a single intersection, we’re faced with three, where we are creating additional contact points.”
Among the options there are conversion to one conventional, more perpindicular, intersection with Pleasant Street converted to an access road to businesses and parking.
There are also “skewed maneuvers” where drivers have to look back over their shoulder to merge and a lot of excessive pavement within the intersections, which allows for faster travel speeds and “uncontrolled chanellization of motorists.” For pedestrians, Fitzgerald said those intersections also mean excessively long crossing distances, which means safety risks.
The potential concept includes on-street bike lanes, areas of on-street parking, curb extentions – or bump-outs – at crossing areas to slow traffic and improve pedestrian safety and green buffers on one or both sides of the street.
Septarated or buffered bike lanes have also been considered.
“Ultimately, the preferred alternative is something that will be worked out with the group as a whole in advancing the project to the next phase,” Fitzgerald said.
“I travel those roads a lot and I’m really thankful for what you’re envisioning,” Kowalski said.
Vice Chair Dan Salvucci asked about the status about TIP funding, to which Fitzgerald said it has not yet been assigned a TIP year, which typically happens further along in the process.
“When do you expect that to happen – so I can push for it?” asked Salvucci, who is vice chair on the Joint Transportation Planning Council.
Fitzgerald estimated the pre-25 percent design could be approved by April 2025 and completed and approved by April 2027.
“That could certainly be expedited,” he said.
Select Board member Justin Evans noted the project is pretty close to that involved in the MBTA Communities compliance district.
“Taking these two projects together, it is a total rethinking of East Whitman,” he said. “This makes it a much more walkable community from, really, Colebrook Boulevard – which is already a community path – to Route 58.”
He noted the project’s estimated price tag is $14.8 million and asked for an updated estimate.
Fitzgerald said that was the latest estimate, with the design estimate at 14 percent of construction costs. The $14.8 million figure includes extra things over the construction costs.
Select Board member Laura Howe asked how specific design options will be decided.
“The town is leading the charge with the design and it’s a town-owned road, but it’s also a project going through the MassDOT process and they will weigh in heavily,” Fitzgerald said, noting it would be, hopefully a consensus decision.