By Alice Waugh
Lincoln has formed a new Route 2 Oversight Committee to coordinate the town’s actions in response to problems arising from the Route 2 construction project.
Residents who live near the construction areas have complained repeatedly to the Board of Selectmen and Lincoln police about issues including alleged traffic violations by construction equipment, disruptive night work and the visual impact of tree-cutting near the highway. At the May 23 selectmen’s meeting, a coalition called the Brooks Road Abutters Group (BRAG) presented selectmen last week with a memo containing photos and a demand that BRAG and the town be “compensated for the unnecessary removal of these trees with additional replacement trees over and above those shown on the contract drawings, with species, size and location determined by the abutters.”
The group cited document 602984 HWY 0280, a page from the construction plans that shows the post-construction re-landscaping plan for an area just north of Route 2 but also includes a specific notation (note #18) that, “as directed by the wetland specialist, the contractor shall attempt to retain mature (e.g., 10 inches and greater DBH) [diameter at breast height] native trees throughout the mitigation areas.”
“The pictures are pretty compelling on that, and not only is it offensive in itself, but it looks like it could have been in violation of specific contract terms,” said First Selectman Peter Braun.
However, in a phone conversation with the Lincoln Squirrel on May 31, the subcontractor tasked with tree removal said no trees were cut down unnecessarily and that his company “was told exactly what to cut” (see related story).
Also at the May 23 meeting, Vince Valentine of 10 Brooks Rd. told selectmen that concrete barriers to Route 2 had been removed, with the result that a four-year-old boy crossed the highway on a motorized toy car. Fortunately traffic was light because it happened on a Sunday, he said.
“It’s an indication of the severe destruction of that whole area,” Valentine said. “I know we’re doing the construction to prevent accidents, but we’re wide open now and anything could happen. We’re so exposed that a drunk driver can come right through and go into someone’s house. There’s nothing there to stop anything at all.”
Selectmen again urged Valentine and other residents to report perceived violations to the non-emergency Lincoln Police number (781-259-8113), though they can call 911 in a true emergency such as the scenario Valentine described. Documenting issues for reporting to state transportation officials and political representatives is key, and “if there’s a potential for a four-year-old getting killed, that’s going to get people’s attention real fast,” Braun said.
The town’s recently redesigned website now has a page dedicated to the Route 2 project, selectmen noted.
The new Route 2 Oversight Committee, which held its first meeting on May 31, will “try to take stock of all the various concerns and get our arms around them,” Town Administrator Timothy Higgins, the committee’s coordinator, said that afternoon, adding that help from independent experts may be needed to “verify and add context” to the issues raised.
“We think we’re going to get one opportunity” to present data and ask state officials to impose some type of mitigation, “and we want to make sure we’re making the most compelling case to the Commonwealth,” Higgins said.
Braun and Higgins are members of the committee along with Jim Henderson, a member of the Conservation Commission; Chris Reilly, director of planning and land use; Robert Domnitz, vice chair of the Planning Board; Tom Gumbart, conservation director; and Dan Boynton, longtime former Planning Board member and a Brooks Road resident.