I-495 Draft Report Looks To The Future | Trains, buses, connector roads proposed
A regional commuter rail mega-station, more bus routes and new roads between overcrowded highways are all ideas floated in a recent draft report on Interstate 495, which was conducted by two regional planning agencies.
“There needs to be regional solutions,” said Lawrence B. Adams, executive director of the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission, of the area’s traffic and development issues. “We have to move forward together. Towns just can’t shift the problem down the road to the next town.”
The CMRPC conducted the study with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, which represents 101 communities in Greater Boston. Those towns include communities like Framingham, Natick, Milford, Hopkinton and Holliston. The two agencies have been working on the study for about a year.
“This was a chance to say: What would we like to see if we could say what if?” said Mary Ellen Blunt, CMRPC’s transportation program manager, who worked on the draft and will be pulling together the final report.
Asking Questions
One regional “what if” includes a potential mega commuter rail station where the Massachusetts Turnpike meets I-495, as well as additional fixed-route public transportation that would go to and from many MetroWest towns and the new train station. The report also proposes a connection with the buses to the MBTA’s Green Line.
Adams said the idea of a mega rail station isn’t an original one. It dates back to the administration of Gov. Michael Dukakis, who suggested rail stations on the spine of the Mass Pike. “He said you should collect them where they travel,” Adams said.
The study also shows that the traffic congestion in MetroWest will only grow in the coming 20 years.
The modeling data used in the report shows that between 2007 and 2030, the population across the area is expected to increase by 15.4 percent. Employment growth during that time is expected to jump by nearly 10 percent.
The study’s modeling data estimates that the traffic counts at 495 and its intersection with the Mass Turnpike will increase 42 percent during that same time period, from 53,800 vehicles per day to 76,400.
Similar double-digit percent increases are projected at the highway’s intersections with Routes 9 and 20.
The proposed improvements for each intersection are very preliminary and involve using connector roads and flyover sections instead of the traditional interchanges that exist now.
Potential connector roads could run between Routes 20 and 9 and between Route 9 and the Pike, which could divert traffic pressure from 495.
The report also recommends more smart growth, which encourages denser development, as well as additional cooperation between towns on projects that overlap boundaries.
“The towns in MetroWest have actually done a great job of trying to encourage development where development already exists,” said the CMRPC’s Blunt. “It’s important to grow the area economically, but in a healthy way.”
And planning “what ifs” can also lead to creative solutions that otherwise would not surface.
“Sometimes practical reality can get in the way of creative thinking,” said Vera Kolias, Southborough’s planner who attended a recent meeting on the report, which she said raised some unique solutions. “Sometimes you have to think crazy. If some things aren’t very useful, you can discount them, but you can also take part of an idea that could work.”
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