Roads and Highways General Development Thread

[RandomWalk]

Depending on traffic, the Route 16 eastbound to right turn on Main St move will be a mess. The Mystic Valley Parkway off ramp to Harvard Ave move is a mess under most traffic conditions, even though it has more space than the proposed ramp.

 

[WestMedford]

I don’t know why MassDOT is going through this design process to improve the ramp intersections and Main/Mystic when the real effort should be taking down the Rt. 16 overpass of Main St entirely. The whole thing was built for an era of highway expansion that never came to be and it’s a cluster the hard transition from full expressway to one lane parkway. Every time I drive over this bridge I have no idea why it’s still here. There’s be plenty of room to figure out the optimal configuration for this stretch of pavement if they removed the overpass. And to incorporate shared uses and de-prioritize the current freeway intent.

 

[as02143]

I don’t know why MassDOT is going through this design process to improve the ramp intersections and Main/Mystic when the real effort should be taking down the Rt. 16 overpass of Main St entirely. The whole thing was built for an era of highway expansion that never came to be and it’s a cluster the hard transition from full expressway to one lane parkway. Every time I drive over this bridge I have no idea why it’s still here. There’s be plenty of room to figure out the optimal configuration for this stretch of pavement if they removed the overpass. And to incorporate shared uses and de-prioritize the current freeway intent.

I don't think there's enough state money to do a mini arbor way project on the north end of town for a while yet.

I generally agree with the concept but I think this might be a progressive MassDOT highway department thinking of doing highway "harm reduction".

 

[Charlie_mta]

Joined the meeting for this project yesterday in Medford. It's not even at 25% design yet so there's hopefully changes that could be made to improve the design after all of the feedback MassDOT and the consulting firm received last night. There seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm from residents for outright removing or closing the ramps (which MassDOT seemed opposed to). There were also a lot of people very vocal about how turning the sidewalks into narrow shared-use paths was a step backwards as well as many gripes about the addition of a turn lane on Main St, increasing the lanes of traffic from 4 to 5. Overall I hope they're able to refine this design to something more friendly to all road users instead of prioritizing car throughput and "safety" (fewer car-on-car crashes).

I would remove only the west-bound Route 16 overpass, and move both directions of Route 16 to the surface. The existing east-bound Route 16 overpass would be left in place, but converted to a greenway "land bridge" carrying a new multi-use path (in yellow) over Main Street.. The bright green areas are new park land created:

 

[KCasiglio]

I don't think there's enough state money to do a mini arbor way project on the north end of town for a while yet.

I generally agree with the concept but I think this might be a progressive MassDOT highway department thinking of doing highway "harm reduction".

If there’s not money for radical intervention in Eastern Massachusetts’ most dangerous corridor then we need systemic reassessment of transportation funding.

If rt. 16, Somerville-Revere, were MBTA track it would’ve been shut down a long time ago for safety.