Road Improvements Among 2012 Warrant Articles

While Westwood officials will be discussing such matters as and among this year's town warrant articles, also being considered are ways to improve the town's roads. 

Currently listed as Warrant Article 4, the Westwood Board of Selectmen discussed the possibility of taking on a $2.4 million bond within Proposition 2 1/2 for road improvement work in town.

The Board discussed the matter with Finance Director Pam Dukeman Monday night, and Selectmen Chair Pat Ahearn elaborated on the article to the Finance Commission later at the FinCom's public hearing. 

"Its just a great time for us to issue some new debt," Dukeman said Monday night. "We carry a very low amount of debt in our budget. So with some of the debt dropping off, it makes sense to issue some new debt."

by refinancing the bond, issued in 2003. 

The $2.4 million bond would comprise the following:

• $600,000 for paving/road work
• $515,000 for traffic studies, mitigation and traffic signals
• $1,275,000 for drainage and storm water needs. 

Meanwhile, another article, currently referred to as Article 19, proposes raising and/or appropriating funds for $195,000 to conduct a study and/or design to make improvements to High Street/Rte. 109 in an effort to reduce traffic congestion during peak commuting hours. 

The $195,000 would actually make up part of funds proposed in Article 4 for traffic studies and road work. Officials said Monday they expect to merge Article 4 and Article 19. 

A portion of that money would be used to design improvements to the part of Rte. 109 between Summer Street and the I-95/Rte. 128 on-ramp. Specifically, the design would look to add a lane on High Street on that particular stretch.

Engineers have reviewed the area and recommended that the section of the road be widened to two lanes, in order to eliminate a bottleneck impact the intersection is having on traffic, according to the proposed article.

The remaining portion would be used to help implement to the back roads near Conant Road and Dover Road.

"We feel like it'd be a significant improvement," Westwood Department of Public Works Director Vicki Quiram said Monday night. "It's not going to solve the problem, but it will make a significant improvement."

Also being discussed is the possibility of synchronizing the traffic lights along High Street. Officials are looking at a system that would provide radio communication among the traffic lights to allow them to be synchronized. 

Officials have reached out to the State level for potential aid in fundig, and plan to discuss the matters more as as the article revision process continues. Discussions of the warrant articles will continue at the FinCom's second series of hearings at the end of March.