By Dakota Antelman, Contributing Writer
Region – Massachusetts Department of Transportation officials have come face to face with communities of concerned residents in recent months as they have canvassed area towns seeking input on planned improvements to the I-495/I-90 interchange in Westborough.
Such was the case on July 30 as approximately a dozen mostly Hudson and Marlborough residents met with officials at the Hudson Town Hall for a listening session. Over roughly an hour and a half, those residents raised concerns about the length of construction and whether state proposals will go far enough to prevent the traffic jams that now frequently plague the interchange.
“I can’t ever figure out why it’s at a standstill,” said one Marlborough resident who did not provide her name. “You would think at least in the left lane [traveling south], people would be going. But they’re not.”
Connecting two of the state’s largest highways, an estimated 75,000 vehicles traffic the interchange on a daily basis. That includes half of the truck traffic entering Eastern Massachusetts on a daily basis.
Routing all those vehicles through a series of loop ramps focused around a former toll plaza, traffic often grinds to a halt, sometimes then creating dangerous conditions for drivers. In total, the state reports 460 collisions within the interchange with two fatal accidents between 2011 and 2015 alone.
Acknowledging a desperate need for improvements in the area, officials highlighted their interest in maintaining continual public input throughout this process.
“We want to show you the options, talk about scheduling going forward, and to answer any questions or comments you have,” said project manager Ryan McNeal.
Presenting three potential improvement plans, the state is particularly pushing what is known as Option C-2. Using a series of flyover ramps, that effort would eliminate the most dangerous aspects of the existing looping traffic flow. It would also lengthen acceleration and deceleration lanes on both I-495 and I-90 to, according to the state, decrease the frequency and duration of backups by 91%, and lower the local crash rate by 21 percent.
While attendees of the Hudson listening session were happy to hear of these improvements, they still questioned officials particularly on the project’s construction impacts.
One local landowner worried about encroachment on abutting properties as builders widen roadways.
To this, officials assured that the plan actually uses existing median space to add lanes and ramps without measurably expanding the highway area itself.
Likewise, multiple attendees voiced concerns about delays during construction, which, according to the state may last between four and five years.
“We will be looking at the contract and putting language in there about when they can take lanes out of service and what lanes they can take out,” McNeal said in response to those comments. “The expectation is that we will definitely have those incentives and disincentives in the contract.”
From here, the state will be processing feedback gathered at the Hudson meeting and three others like it in Holliston, Shrewsbury, and Hopkinton respectively. It will then be advancing its base project proposal to a team of engineers who will flesh out designs as contractors begin work ideally in the spring of 2022.