Weston Traffic Panel Sets April Hearing Date for Route 30 Design Review

WESTON -- March 16, 2022, Weston residents challenge shared-use path safety at Route 30 design update meeting. The Traffic and Sidewalk Committee, chaired by Jay Doyle, presented a six-slide status update on the 3.7-mile Route 30 reconstruction project, which is at the 25 percent design stage under MassDOT's Transportation Improvement Program and includes a 10-foot-wide shared-use path along the south side of the corridor. Abutter Rebecca Mercury of 502 South Avenue pressed the committee for an overdue written response to AASHTO safety concerns about the bidirectional path crossing dozens of driveways, saying a formal reply promised in January 2021 had never arrived and calling a designer's previous response, "you'll get used to it", "unacceptable." Resident Elise Rivers questioned whether buffered bike lanes would qualify for the same TIP funding and asked for AASHTO sight-distance evaluations at every roadway crossing the path. A MassDOT public hearing at the 25 percent design level is expected in April or May 2022, with a 75 percent submittal planned for fall 2022 and construction cost estimates due in 2023.