It’s time to take out your reading glasses and study the Route 30 Reconstructtion plans before the Traffic & Sidewalk Committee meeting on Wednesday, March 16 at 7 pm. A shared use path (as in walkers, ponies, coyotes and bicycles) is in the plan, as well as traffic lights at Winter and Oak (there go my fast tracks to the high school–hope this takes at least three more years to get done) and a “hybrid pedestrian/emergency signal” at Ash Street. I don’t know exactly what that is–except a possible death by squishing for all pedestrians. I will assume the giant fire trucks will be okay.

Here’s the official communication:

The Route 30 corridor, from the Natick town line to the Newton city line, has not been updated (paved) since 2003. This is a heavily traveled road for commuters and lacks sidewalks and bicycle accommodations in many areas. After approval of design funds for a Transportation Improvement Project (TIP) at the 2018 Annual Town Meeting, the
Town’s design engineer, Howard Stein Hudson, was retained to conduct studies and designs for improvements to this corridor.

After a series of public meetings held by the Traffic and Sidewalk Committee, the 25% design plans were submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) in October 2020 and have been in a state of review and comments by MassDOT since that time. These plans and related reports are available on the Town’s website at
https://www.weston.org/1274/Route-30-Reconstruction. Key differences from the existing conditions include a 10 ft. wide shared use path along the southern side of the road, new traffic signals proposed at Winter Street and Oak Street, and a hybrid pedestrian/emergency signal at Ash Street.

This update is being offered to solicit public comment due to the two years that have elapsed since the last update, in the interest of making sure that all abutters are aware of the project and have an opportunity to comment on it. The next step in the project is the 25% design public hearing, which will be scheduled by MassDOT for sometime in the
spring of 2022. Following that hearing the design will advance to the 75%, 100% and PS&E (plans, specification and estimate) phases. The project is intended to be funded for construction through the State Transportation Improvements Program and is currently estimated at over $14M.

Well, this sounds like a gridlock nightmare. Fortunately I know that we have 11,875 other traffic engineers in this town and they all have opinions too. Call in to Traffic & Sidewalk to hear about the fun.