Route 128 improvements down the road

By Ethan Forman
Staff writer

July 25, 2008 12:10 am

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DANVERS — You'll have to make that mad dash onto Route 128 for the next several years, but there are signs a multimillion-dollar improvement project is on the way.

Bids could go out as early as this fall, a MassHighway spokesman said, and then it will be another three years before new acceleration and deceleration lanes and other improvements are complete.

The project is important because the antiquated highway built to handle 15,000 cars a day in 1940 now carries 80,000.

Phase I is being prepared for advertisement between Oct. 1, 2008, to Sept. 30, 2009, said MassHighway spokesman Adam Hurtubise.

"We estimate that construction will take three years," Hurtubise said, "but I'll have a much better time line for you once we get closer to advertising."

A key improvement will replace cloverleaf-style ramps that have no room to accelerate with on-ramps that give cars a straight shot onto the highway.

There are already signs a project is in the works.

A house at 50 Elliott St. has been boarded up in anticipation it will be torn down to make way for a new northbound on-ramp.

The Conservation Commission took a hike Monday along the edge of Route 128 south to see how well the roadway's drainage was working.

Members scrambled up a steep embankment at the Route 62/Elliott Street interchange to get onto the side of the highway and look for signs of erosion.

Danvers officials are waiting for Phase I of what is an estimated $53 million project along a two-mile stretch of the Yankee Division Highway from Route 114 in Peabody to just north of Route 62 in Danvers.

Much of the work is in Danvers. The first phase includes:

r $25 million for new acceleration/deceleration lanes at Route 35 (High Street) and Route 62 (Elliott Street).

r Replacement of a bridge over an old MBTA railroad line..

r Three noise barriers: one along the northbound on-ramp from Elliott Street to Route 128, a second along the northbound on-ramp from High Street to Route 128 and a third at the southbound off-ramp from Route 128 to High Street.

The second phase involves $27.5 million for work that runs the length of the project, and it involves repairs and replacement of five bridges.

State Rep. Ted Speliotis, D-Danvers, said he doubts the project will make much progress this year, even though it has been designed down to the level of detail where residents have voted on the colors of the sound barriers.

"We need to fight for funding to make sure construction happens," Speliotis said. "Everything is ready to go, and it's a matter of funding. What it is competing with is the crisis we have with the bridges. What we have to convince them is the bridge at High Street is critical."

Speliotis said the reconstruction of Route 128 is critical to the economy, but the highway that connects the region has antiquated on-ramps.

Reducing ramp traffic

The work at the High Street and Elliott Street interchanges involves replacing the cloverleaf-shaped ramps with acceleration and deceleration ramps, Danvers Department of Public Works Director David Lane said.

In effect, the interchanges will become diamond-shaped, when seen from above, with ramps leading to and from the highway. These new ramps will eliminate stop signs at the top of the on-ramps.

"Now people will be able to come up and merge into traffic," Lane said. The overpasses over Routes 35 and 62 do not have to be replaced, Lane said. Traffic lights will control traffic on Elliott Street.

Plans show the new ramps would remove traffic from Milton Road and Florence Street, in the vicinity of the Route 35 interchange.

The exit and on-ramp at Liberty Street, in the area of the Elliott Street interchange, will be shut off to highway traffic and be open to local traffic only.

State Road, which also handles ramp traffic to and from Route 128 at Exit 22 also will be shut off to highway traffic but continue to carry local traffic, Lane said.

The project has been anticipated for years.

In 2004, about 80 residents gathered at Town Hall to hear about plans, which require some land takings in the vicinity of the interchanges.

One of those who spoke up about the project back then was Aileen L'Abbe, who was concerned about speeding.

On Monday, L'Abbe, who owns four homes in the area, said she is satisfied with the planned roadwork.

But L'Abbe, also the chairwoman of the River Committee, had another concern and passed out a letter asking officials to make sure to "bait the bridges before they do any work" because of concerns about rats.

"Big ones," L'Abbe said.

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