By Tom Dalton
SALEM — It may have taken decades to complete, but the Bridge Street bypass road seemed worth the wait yesterday when city and state dignitaries gathered under sunny skies to cut a ribbon to open the $15 million roadway between Veterans Memorial Bridge and downtown Salem.
"This project has been a long time coming," Mayor Kim Driscoll said to a crowd of more than 50 that gathered at the base of the bridge.
State Rep. John Keenan took a humorous jab at a state roadway that was talked about in the 1960s but not built for nearly half a century.
"I really don't think I can take credit for this project," the 43-year-old legislator said. "I think it was conceived before I was."
Wisecracks aside, there were only kind words yesterday for a road that was constructed to improve traffic flow between Beverly and Salem and to lessen congestion on Bridge Street, where neighbors and businesses have coped with rush-hour traffic jams for years.
"It's not only going to help the way we travel into and out of Salem, but I also think it's going to help some neighborhoods..." the mayor said.
This project has been around so long that there were a lot of people to thank yesterday — living and dead.
Keenan thanked his predecessor at the Statehouse, who shepherded this project for years.
"Certainly, J. Michael Ruane is looking down and smiling today," he said.
Driscoll made sure to point out former Mayor Stanley Usovicz in the crowd of onlookers. Usovicz was Ward 2 city councilor when land was taken for the road and, as mayor, helped lead the political fight to get it built.
Massachusetts Highway Commissioner Luisa Paiewonsky credited one of her mentors, Ellen DiGeronimo, the former state highway official who later served as executive director of the Salem Chamber of Commerce.
The bypass road, a one-mile roadway along the North River and the commuter rail tracks, is one more step in a series of state projects that started a dozen years ago with the bridge construction.
This two-lane, tree-lined road joins a newly constructed section of Bridge Street near the downtown. The state also is in the early stages of redesigning the old section of Bridge Street from the bridge to Winter Street.
State Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen, who was scheduled to speak, could not make it to yesterday's ribbon-cutting, an official said.
