SUNDERLAND — The state Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is examining public input regarding a plan to resurface North Main Street, and it plans to address questions and concerns at a date not yet determined.
Residents packed a meeting room in Sunderland Town Hall recently to voice their opinions on preliminary plans for work on a section of North Main Street (Route 47), from Route 116 north to Claybrook Road. The project does not include the intersection of routes 47 and 116.
Project Manager Tom Currier, Engineer Doug White and Right-of-Way Compliance Officer Karen Axtell, all of MassDOT, joined engineers Kevin Thatcher and John Morgan of CHA Consulting, Inc. to hear from the public.
Axtell told residents their town accepted certain responsibilities — including the acquisition of necessary rights of private and public lands for the project’s design, construction and implementation — when the state accepted this project for funding.
“My function is to review and recommend procedures used in acquiring these rights. The procedures used must comply with both federal and state regulations. The current design plans indicate there are four permanent easements and 56 temporary easements that will be required,” she said. “The property owners impacted by this project will be contacted by your municipal officials. They will present the proposed impacts to each owner and discuss the methods with which they may acquire the needed rights for the project.
“Frequently, municipalities will appeal for donations to minimize the acquisition cost to your community. However, donations are not required and property owners are entitled to appraisal, review appraisal and just compensation,” she continued. “Right-of-way documents will be provided to each owner to help them understand the acquisition process and how the project affects their property. Affected property owners’ rights are protected under our Massachusetts General Laws.”
Currier stressed that the temporary easements are a means of buying the “right for a construction worker to stand on the edge of your property to build the back of the sidewalk.”
“We typically negotiate a five-year window for those,” he explained. “The work will be done much quicker than that. … The edge of your property remains as it is today, although with some new loam and seed on it.”
Morgan took guests through a PowerPoint presentation about the project. He said a traffic count in October 2015 indicated average daily traffic of 5,000 vehicles. He also said most drivers on the road travel faster than the posted speed, and there were five accidents between 2010 and 2014.
Morgan said the road’s pavement is in “fair to poor condition at this point” and has “reached its service life.”
The proposed improvements include a mill and structural overlay, which entails grinding off 1¾ inch from the pavement’s top layer and replacing it with 4 inches. The pavement increase will provide for a better and longer-lasting roadway, according to MassDOT.
The project also aims to improve pedestrian safety by stamping and coloring crosswalks, improving wheelchair ramps to sidewalks, installing a 5-foot sidewalk on North Main Street’s west and east sides, and adding curbed median island and traffic signs, as well as increasing bicycle accommodations.
Morgan said the total construction cost is expected to be $2.5 million. The project will be advertised to contractors in September 2020 and construction should begin by spring 2021.
When it came time for public comment, Lorin Starr, chair of 120 North Main St. Advisory Committee, said she wants to ensure the Sunderland Buttonball Tree is adequately protected and monitored during the project.
“We are very sensitive of the trees along the corridors, especially the buttonball tree,” Morgan replied, adding that an arborist will be solicited by the town for the project.
Susan Triolo, of Garage Road, spoke against the improvement proposed at the end of North Silver Lane.
“That’s a really nice walking area. I don’t think there’s any confusion about how to turn there,” she said. “Either you go left or you go right.”
Justine Rosewarne, of Claybrook Road, echoed Triolo’s sentiment.
“I walk the loop that a lot of people do. I come down North Silver Lane, up to Claybrook. I’ve done it for about 20 years, about five to six days a week,” she said. “Two crosswalks, one in front of Claybrook and one in front of North Silver, seems completely redundant. Like, there’s not enough people, I don’t think, that walk across the street at Claybrook.”
Rosewarne, like others in attendance, said speeding on Route 47 is the road’s main problem. White explained crosswalks are an attempt at what he called “traffic calming.”
“When people drive over a crosswalk, they know they’re coming from the rural area into the village, and it’s just a visual attempt at calming,” he said. “So, it might help a little bit.”
Rosewarne said she did not disagree, mentioning that crosswalks definitely help at Amherst College.