Traffic and Sidewalk Committee hears developer study for 200-unit 518 South Avenue project

WESTON — August 14, 2019 — Weston committee gets first look at traffic study for 200-unit 518 South Avenue 40B. Hanover Company traffic consultant Sean Kelly of Vanasse and Associates told the Traffic and Sidewalk Committee on Aug. 14 that the project would add 72 morning and 88 evening peak-hour trips to Route 30, which already carries about 17,000 vehicles a day, and that no intersection's level-of-service grade would change. The Wellesley Street signal would see "about a car per minute or less" added at peak, Kelly said, though the southbound approach there stays at failing level F. The developer is proposing to regrade an embankment in the Route 30 right of way to fix sight lines west of the new driveway and to install a radar speed-feedback sign. Residents disputed nearly every assumption — March counts that may have missed private-school traffic, national ITE rates applied to a corridor that backs up daily, and reliance on a Winter Street signal that has not yet reached 25 percent design. Chair Jay Doyle said the committee will weigh in to the Planning Board and Selectmen and signaled support for an independent peer review before the ZBA hearing opens the following Monday.