To the Editor:
A lot of attention has been focused lately on the impact of the Route 2 Crosby Corner upgrade project. There has been outrage over the unexpectedly extensive tree cutting, the daily traffic delays and the encroachment onto private lands owned by Route 2 abutters.
As a Lincoln resident whose driveway comes directly off of Route 2, I have shared some of these concerns. However, as a 20- year participant in the Route 2 planning committees and a former co-chair of the Lincoln Planning Board, I can also appreciate the enormous complexity of this project and the vital reasons why it was necessary.
Commuters have frequently been injured on the highway in front of my house. During slippery weather there have been major accidents as huge trucks coming over the hill above Crosby Corner have slammed into cars that were stopped at the traffic light.
This was a situation that had to be fixed, and in October 1994, representatives from the three towns of Acton, Concord and Lincoln initiated a very thoughtful planning process to create a design that would be safe for everyone.
Each neighborhood abutting Route 2 had the opportunity to nominate its own neighborhood captain to participate in meetings and to ferry communications back to the neighborhood. The captains were Bill Kanzer, Southwest Quadrant; Bruce Repko, Orchard Lane; Patrick Murphy, Oak Knoll; Ruth Williams, Rockwood Lane; Jennifer Brody, Brooks Road; and myself (Dan Boynton), Northwest Quadrant.
Over a 20-year period, members of the Lincoln Planning Board and Board of Selectmen joined the neighborhood captains at quarterly design meetings with Mass Highway officials.
The result was a plan which included a series of service roads that replaced individual driveways onto Route 2 and a flyover bridge which eliminated the hazardous intersection at Crosby Corner. This design required a wider project footprint as compared with a conventional four-lane (two in each direction) layout and this necessitated more extensive tree clearing and excavation work.
In addition, this new design included the use of a network of drainage pipes and detention basins which will improve the quality of water flowing into Flints Pond and prevent seasonal flooding on the road into Concord.
Information and input
Few projects in Lincoln have been as well publicized as this one. Overall, there have been at least 100 opportunities for resident input, including a number of large public meetings.
In October 1998, a Draft Environmental Impact Report was issued and at that time the basic layout was presented to the town. Resident feedback was also sought as later modifications were made in 2000, 2003, 2009. A final meeting was held in December 2012 in order to keep Lincoln residents informed as to the scope of the project.
Although there have been many complaints about the construction process, so far, with the exception of the overly aggressive tree cutting, D.W. White Construction Company, the low bidder for the contract, has been closely following the design parameters and the quality of their workmanship has been very good. They are proceeding according to schedule.
However, town residents, and especially the nearest abutters, are inevitably experiencing negative impacts during construction. To deal with these issues, the selectmen established an Oversight Committee which has assisted neighborhoods in their negotiations with MassDOT.
Town administrator Tim Higgins has handled the highly stressful task of chairing this committee with a high degree of maturity and restraint. And Peter Braun, who as Chairman of the Board of Selectmen is the town’s highest ranking elected official, has served as a consistent advocate for community members who felt that the construction project was hurting their property values.
As a result of Tim and Peter’s efforts, changes have been made to the project which will benefit all of us. The tree plantings on both sides of the highway have been substantially enhanced, and new stone walls and landscape fences are being proposed which will provide better visual screening for residents.
Construction will continue on Route 2 for at least two more years and the disruption will likely become even more intense when workers start to build the overpass. We all need to find ways to support each other as we put up with the noise, the dust, and the traffic delays this will create. In the end, we will have created a highway improvement that is good for Lincoln, good for our neighborhoods and good for the commuting public.
Sincerely,
Dan Boynton
34 Cambridge Turnpike
Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic. They may be edited for length, grammar/punctuation, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor.