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If your commute includes the Lynnway it could get a whole lot worse in the next few years when a large redesign of Route 1A gets underway. There might be a little light at the end of the construction tunnel, however.
The Select Board voted to join with neighboring communities to try and mitigate some of the pending pain.
The board will join town leaders from Swampscott and Nahant and send a letter to Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, headed by Phillip Eng, voicing their concerns for their constituents.
"We would like to put together a joint letter, just basically expressing our concerns about the impact on commuters, and just to make sure that they are really considering mitigation during the construction, because we do have a lot of our constituents who already have to sit in traffic," said Select Board Chair Dan Fox.
Fox also pointed out that the Lynnway project had the potential of coinciding with two additional Lynnway projects, bridge construction in Lynn and construction of a new high school in Revere also located on 1A, across from the Wonderland T station.
What's the project?
According to the Lynnway Multimodal Corridor Project website, the MBTA is partnering with the city of Lynn, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which actually owns and operates the busy Lynnway, and the state's Department of Transportation. The aim is to make the "historically car-centric" thoroughfare safer for drivers as well as pedestrians, cyclists and buses including adding bus lanes, additional stops and more frequent trips, among other things.
The project, which runs from the Revere line to just north of Market Street in Lynn, is being funded through a $20 million federal grant and has a projected start date of 2028. MBTA officials have held public forums in Nahant and Marblehead seeking feedback on the plan, but local leaders state they want to make sure all voices are being heard.
Swampscott and Nahant town leaders have reportedly received complaints and concerns from their residents also worried about how the project might impact daily commutes. Fox said he did meet with project advisers recently and raised one possible mitigation idea. He said those who take the commuter rail to work are concerned there will not be enough parking once the project gets underway. They asked if the MBTA could provide a bus that would take commuters directly to the commuter rail.
"So, they're going to come to us on that," Fox said.
But in the meantime, he asked for a motion that would allow him to sign a tri-community letter expressing their collective concerns and asking the state to come up with a mitigation plan for the future. The motion passed unanimously.
"We just really want them to think beyond Lynn … there are other communities that are highly impacted," Fox said.
