PROPOSED: Route 6/10 Interchange Project

[mental757]

Five years?

NO, "at least" five years!!!

[brick]

Five years?

I would imagine they will wait until most of the I-way is completed rather than trying to get both

projects into the budget for each of the next five years.

[Lone Ranger]

But that road is in terrible shape NOW!

Yeah I know, it's all about the money matters. Still, that's disappointing.

[Cotuit]

Route 6/10 construction -- Lumberyard in the way. Louis Gautieri Jr. says the state is planning to make his business, National Lumber, the victim of a public works project for the second time. [ProJo.com]

[JimmyGreaves]

In my comments to DOT on this project, I expressed extreme disappointment that no transit alternative to lessen traffic congestion was studied. I understand that there's a safety and cost issue that has to be considered, but the fact that this project will not begin for at least five years casts an even larger pall over its ability to effectively address the current traffic conditions.

Why wait so long if the safety of the on and off ramps is a concern?

Traffic patterns could change in 5 years making all the due diligence used to justify it obsolete.

Triple convergence will cause congestion to increase after the completion of this project as people who might have used alternative West-East routes will now use US 6.

Highways of this type do not fit within dense urban areas, and this project not add any value in my opinion, not to mentioning forcibly removing people from their homes and businesses. You would think that we would learn from the Robert Moses-esque mistakes of the past.

[Recchia]

It's all about pleasing the people. People get stuck in traffic, they get pissed off, and they cry to DOT, "make it wider", or "build another highway!", of course not understanding any of the principles of traffic congestion or traffic engineering, etc. Then you get ignorant politicians on board, and forget it, you end up with stupid proposals to widen highways or build new ones, despite the long hard learned lessons of the past (i.e. like you said, Robert Moses and New York). If people were educated on the matter, then they would realize that adding capacity only adds more people and therefore does not reduce congestion at all and then wouldn't be clamoring for projects like this.

[gregw]

I wonder if there may have been greater efforts to alleviate traffic by relying more on other modes of transportation if William Ankner, the former director of the DOT, had stayed on into the Carcieri admin. But Carcieri wanted to reward the road building lobby which had supported his campaign.

[Recchia]

I wonder if there may have been greater efforts to alleviate traffic by relying more on other modes of transportation if William Ankner, the former director of the DOT, had stayed on into the Carcieri admin. But Carcieri wanted to reward the road building lobby which had supported his campaign.

Haha, good old Ankner. That man ate more food at public meetings than I think is humanly possible.

But anyway, DOT is dominated by engineers, engineers that see few uses for things like transit. There's too few actual planners there, and that won't change until this administration is gone.

[atheorist]

Enough $$$ for highways was my first reaction to this proposal.

However, this project may be worthwhile if it could better focus on the traffic issues of Olneyville Square. (Imagine how things would be with no bypass at all...) An origin/destination survey of drivers in the jams in Olneyville might lead to ideas how to redesign the bypass/interchange for the convenience of the surrounding neighborhoods as well as drivers from out of town. How about new connections from route 6 to Manton Avenue perhaps near the footbridge, and from Plainfield street to route 6 west? I wish DOT would worry less about keeping the highway traffic at top speed and more about how to move buses and someday streetcars to and from Plainfield, Hartford, Manton, Valley, Broadway and Westminster streets. Add a good connection to the south and you would have a superb transit node, if only it did not take 15 minutes to inch through from any direction.