DESIGN INFORMATION MEETING WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2011 AT 6:30 P.M. AT HERITAGE STATE PARK VISITOR’S CENTER
200 DAVOL STREET
FALL RIVER, MA 02720
FOR THE PROPOSED
FALL RIVER ROUTE 79 WESTERN VIADUCT/INTERSTATE 195
INTERCHANGE IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT
Project No. 605223
ACCELERATED BRIDGE PROGRAM
IN THE CITY OF FALL RIVER
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
HIGHWAY DIVISION
FRANCIS A. DEPAOLA, P.E.
HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATOR
THOMAS F. BRODERICK, P.E.
ACTING CHIEF ENGINEER
Arlington Reporting Company (339)674­9100 2 PRESENTERS Michael O’Dowd, Project Manager, Accelerated Bridge Program, MassDOT ­ Highway Division, Amy Getchell, Accelerated Bridge Program, MassDOT ­ Highway Division Pam Haznar, District 5 Office, MassDOT ­ Highway Division Rod Emery, Jacobs Engineering SPEAKER INDEX Name Page Michael O’Dowd, Moderator, 19, 30, 34, 35, 37, MassDOT ­ Highway Division, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, Accelerated Bridge Program 44, 46, 49, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 59, 60, 62, 64, 65, 69, 74, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 84 Amy Getchell, 5, 8 MassDOT ­ Highway Division, Accelerated Bridge Program Pamela Haznar, 8 Right of Way Bureau, MassDOT ­ Highway Division Rod Emery, 9, 19, 34, 37, 46, Jacobs Engineering 49, 50, 51, 69, 72, 73, 75 Councilor Michael Lund 34, 37, 38, 81, 82, 83 Arlington Reporting Company
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3 SPEAKER INDEX Name Tom Abner, Lower Highlands Historic Downtown Neighborhood Association James Karam John Carvalho Steven Camara Alan Macomber Kris Bartley Brian Kirk Jason Dvelis Dave Dennis Dave Johansen Kathy George Cameron Fire Chief William Flynn Steve DeLeonardis Page 38, 40, 41, 42, 55 42, 43, 44 49, 50, 51, 52 54, 55, 56 59, 60, 61, 62, 76, 77, 79 62, 64 66, 69, 71, 73 72, 73 74, 75, 76 79 80 55, 56, 58 61, 62 62, 64 Arlington Reporting Company
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4 Description EXHIBITS Page Notice of Public Hearing/Brochure 87­95 Sign­In Sheet 96 Public Comments 97 Arlington Reporting Company
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5 1 2 P R O C E E D I N G S AMY GETCHELL: Good evening, everybody. 3 Thanks for coming out on this beautiful spring 4 evening. I hope you all are nice and dry. 5 So, my name is Amy Getchell. I am 6 project manager for MassDOT with the Accelerated 7 Bridge Program. The Accelerated Bridge Program began 8 in 2008 and it’s an eight­year, $3 billion program to 9 help repair, rehabilitate, or replace structurally 10 11 deficient bridges across the Commonwealth. The Fall River Route 79/I­195 12 Interchange project is currently programmed for $170 13 million, with 80 percent of the funds being 14 contributed by Federal Highway. 15 Tonight’s meeting was advertised in the 16 Boston Globe and the Herald News on March 30th and 17 April 16th, 2011; the Standard Times on April 4th and 18 7th, 2011; the O Jornal on April 6th, 2011; and the 19 Portuguese Times on April 8th, 2011. 20 The purpose of tonight’s meeting is to 21 provide you all with an update on the progress of the 22 Route 79 Interchange project. Our presentation is 23 going to show you a range of alternatives that were 24 investigated, the narrowing down to the three Arlington Reporting Company
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6 1 alternatives, and, ultimately, MassDOT’s 2 recommendation to remove the Route 79 viaduct, and 3 remove, replace, and/or improve the interchange ramp 4 between Route 79 and I­195. So, in January of 2010, MassDOT 5 6 convened a task force made up of stakeholders from 7 Fall River and the region. The task force and MassDOT 8 met approximately once a month to discuss key goals of 9 the project, the Route 79 replacement alternatives, 10 and to provide feedback and comments on the overall 11 project. 12 I would like to recognize and thank all 13 the task force members for their time and dedication 14 throughout this process. 15 Since the task force last met in 16 January, MassDOT and Jacobs, our design consultant, 17 who are here tonight, have been progressing the design 18 of the recommended alternatives for the at­grade 19 design for Route 79. At the same time, we’re working 20 to prepare the Environmental Notification Forms to 21 submit to MEPA for state environmental permitting as 22 well as the Environmental Assessment document for 23 submittal to Federal Highway for part of the Federal 24 Highway permitting process. These two documents will Arlington Reporting Company
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7 1 be combined into one and filed later this spring. 2 Both documents will be made available to the public 3 for review and comment. 4 Tonight’s meeting will provide the 5 public with an opportunity to give MassDOT feedback 6 prior to the submittal of the Environmental Assessment 7 to Federal Highway. 8 So, I’d like to remind everyone, if you 9 haven’t signed in to please do so on your way out this 10 evening. We also have comment cards as part of the 11 package that we handed out. If you would like to do 12 written comments, please do so and mail in to MassDOT. 13 We have a stenographer for this 14 evening. Her name is Tammie Hillarie. And she’s from 15 Arlington Typing. 16 And, we’re going to go through the 17 presentation. We ask that you please hold your 18 comments until the end and your questions as well, and 19 we’d be happy to answer any questions. 20 So, with that, I’d like to pass over 21 the presentation to Pam Haznar from our District 5 22 office. And she’s going to give you a brief update on 23 the current repairs that are going on on Route 79. 24 Thank you. Arlington Reporting Company
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8 1 PAMELA HAZNAR: Thank you, Amy. 2 As Amy mentioned, my name is Pamela 3 Haznar. I’m a project development engineer in 4 District 5 in Taunton for MassDOT. And I just have a 5 brief update on the existing contract that’s going on 6 to ­­ it’s an interim repair contract on the viaduct. 7 And the intent of this current contract is to hold the 8 project, hold the road together, and to make interim 9 repairs until the larger project can be advertised. 10 The project is a $10 million project. 11 It’s for emergency repairs. It basically addresses 12 the beam end, the pin and hanger assemblies, and deck 13 repair as needed. 14 The project is approximately 50 percent 15 complete. And there’s not much more to say than that. 16 We’ll have the contract going until this project can 17 be underway. And when this project is underway, then 18 there will be some repairs continuing as the larger 19 project continues. 20 So, thank you. 21 AMY GETCHELL: Now we’re going to get 22 23 24 to what you’re all here for, the presentation. Rod Emery from Jacobs Engineering is going to run through our slide show for us. Arlington Reporting Company
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9 1 Thanks. 2 ROD EMERY: Thanks, Amy. 3 I’m going to try to stand off to the 4 side here so you can see. If you can’t hear me, let 5 me know and I will grab a microphone. 6 A little bit on the agenda tonight. 7 We’re going to talk a little bit ­­ how many are here 8 for the first time on this Fall River project? A lot 9 of first time people. How many are members of our 10 task force? Great. A couple ­­ a lot of members from 11 the task force. 12 We’re going to go over some of the 13 background, some of the stuff we did on the task force 14 in the last year­and­a­half, how the project started. 15 We’ll take a look at the alternatives that we looked 16 at and how they progressed from very large scale kind 17 of improvements down to the more finite ones. And I 18 just want to emphasize that we’re still in the study 19 phase of the project. 20 Amy talked a little bit how we got to 21 what we’re calling our preferred alternative, the 22 preferred at­grade alternative. But we will be 23 evaluating a series of alternatives in the 24 Environmental Impact Report. A little bit about the Arlington Reporting Company
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10 1 design construction schedule, and at the end of my 2 presentation it will be open for discussion and 3 comment. 4 This is sort of a timeline, or sort of 5 overall picture of this. And the last time we showed 6 this, we were still here at step three. So, we’ve 7 summed up the project as a value engineering study. 8 This project started out with our company as a fix the 9 bridge, fix the structures project. And a value 10 engineering study is commissioned by MassDOT to say 11 let’s make sure we’re not overlooking something. 12 That’s where the idea of removing the viaducts came 13 from. We did a feasibility study and found out it had 14 some value to it. We moved that into the feasibility 15 study and then step three here is where we actually 16 got into the real hard planning and the task force 17 alternatives. 18 A very important step here ­­ step four 19 is the environmental process. We’re looking to wrap 20 that up in a month or so, in a month or so in getting 21 the EA ­­ roughly a month let’s say. Don’t hold me to 22 a date here. But, at that point, when we submit the 23 environmental documents, it fully evaluates all the 24 alternatives, gives everybody a chance in the public Arlington Reporting Company
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11 1 and the agencies to look over all of our assessments. 2 And then if we get the clearance from the 3 environmental process, we can then move into design. 4 And that’s where we will start the preliminary 5 engineering. So, everything we have done to date is 6 not preliminary engineering. It’s still in the study 7 phase. 8 9 I don’t think I have to tell people here what the interchange looks like and its problems. 10 I think ­­ I hope you’ve had a chance to look the 11 model over, you know, and see how we’re trying to 12 transform the interchange and what we’re trying to do 13 here. I’ll get into more detail. 14 Some of the slides are just to remind 15 you there’s a lot of steel and concrete out there. 16 It’s in bad shape. It’s in many levels so it has 17 visual impacts as well as the structural impacts and 18 as well as the traffic operations, which is my 19 specialty. It really has a bunch of levels. I want 20 to say it’s an at­grade alternative. The Braga 21 Bridge, of course, is not part of the project. 22 There’s a lot of repairs going on. But Route 79 23 northbound and southbound, and actually Davol Street, 24 you know, above the railroad tracks, will be replaced. Arlington Reporting Company
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12 1 So, in this section of the project near the Braga 2 Bridge, we’re actually up a level above the railroad. 3 So, all of this goes away is what we’re trying to say 4 in our at­grade alternative. 5 Pam just mentioned the emergency repair 6 contract. Everything she was talking about that needs 7 to be fixed ­­ and you don’t have to be a structural 8 engineering to understand that that’s not good stuff ­
9 ­ it’s underway. So, I don’t want to panic anybody 10 that they can’t ride on Route 79. It’s being fixed. 11 And if your structural engineers looked at that, you 12 would obviously know that the steel is not supposed to 13 be that thin and that much rust going on. That’s as 14 much as a traffic engineer can say about structures. 15 As I mentioned before, we were going to 16 originally rehabilitate the structure. The value 17 engineering ­­ the confluence of the value engineering 18 study and having a funding mechanism like the 19 Accelerated Bridge Program is a once in a lifetime 20 opportunity with $3 billion to take on a project like 21 this. We have a time deadline on the money. It goes 22 away after eight years and it won’t be back again. 23 So, the two things is what really makes this a once in 24 a lifetime opportunity. Arlington Reporting Company
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13 1 This is part of the repairs going on 2 that Pam mentioned right now that you can see every 3 day out there, part of this $10 million emergency 4 repair contract. Back last winter in 2010 or beyond last 5 6 winter, this was a bad winter, we convened a task 7 force, created a task force. We first set up some 8 goals for the project. And we had a lot of discussion 9 about what the goals were. We had to meet certain 10 criteria that would make the highway still operate and 11 function as it does today and not at grade levels of 12 service. We had to look at what the structural, you 13 know, components were of it. We had to look at how it 14 improved bicycle/pedestrian movements. We had to look 15 at visual impacts. We had to look at all impacts, all 16 those things that go into a review of alternative 17 studies. This is one of our task force meetings 18 19 here down at the Maritime Museum. And when you meet 20 in the wintertime in the Maritime Museum, sometimes we 21 had sweaters on down there. It was meant for summer 22 activity. 23 24 So, we looked at ­­ you know, we started off by looking at some goals and something to Arlington Reporting Company
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14 1 compare our alternatives to. We had to start with 2 that premise. 3 The number one goal for the project is 4 the top line. We have to replace the deficient 5 structures on the interchange. That is the key 6 driving force behind this project. But it gave us an 7 opportunity to have several other objectives to go 8 with the major goal here. We can certainly improve 9 the local access, the retail access there. If you’re 10 driving on Route 79 and you want to go to the 11 waterfront, it’s very difficult. You have to get off 12 miles in advance or make some strange turn to get back 13 to the waterfront. 14 We have to meet the Accelerated Bridge 15 mandate for completion of the project. It certainly 16 gives us a chance to improve the visual appearance of 17 the waterfront. As I said before, we have to improve 18 our multimodal access and maintain regional access 19 mobility or we can’t do the project. So those are 20 some of the outlines of the goals that we set early on 21 in the process. 22 We started out with a high level set of 23 improvements, 12 conceptual interchanges. We sat down 24 at one of our task force meetings and we broke up into Arlington Reporting Company
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15 1 teams. We were all given a scorecard and a series of 2 alternatives. And we sat around the room and 3 evaluated them based on some very broad goals. And, 4 at the end of the day, or the end of the task force 5 meeting, we eliminated some of these really high level 6 interchanges. We had basic criteria that we used such 7 as mobility, and safety, and visual access that we 8 used. And out of that 12 concepts, we ended up with 9 five that we retained for more further design. 10 I won’t go into great detail on what 11 all these interchange schemes look like, but they were 12 designed to look at how do we get ­­ all the green 13 ramps here were ramps ­­ were roadways that were being 14 removed. So, up here, this is the blue ramps coming 15 off the Braga where if we put a different kind of ramp 16 in to get rid of these ramps and we had to put a ramp 17 that had enough length to get down that grade, it’s a 18 silly alternative, but it helped illustrate that we 19 couldn’t do that kind. So, the gold and blue are the 20 new pieces of it. So, we tried all different 21 configurations. And this led us to say there’s 22 nothing we can do on this side of the interchange. 23 That’s a type of operations analysis we looked at. 24 We looked at partially removing some of Arlington Reporting Company
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16 1 the ramps and keeping some of the ramps. So, you 2 know, we could take down the interior ramps, but we 3 tied in some outside ramps here. So these are a 4 series of alternatives that looked at those types of 5 alternatives. 6 We looked at connecting across like C­D 7 roads instead of connecting with the green ramps and 8 the blue ramps here. Some of these features, even 9 though they didn’t come out of the entire interchange 10 scheme, we could pick pieces of one scheme and use it 11 for the further alternative. 12 This was could we spread out the 13 traffic to other adjacent interchanges and make it 14 work. And this was just brainstorming kind of 15 opportunities. So, out of that long­range plan, I 16 said we developed five alternatives. Two of them were 17 so­called at­grade alternatives. Alternative one and 18 three, both of those removed all of the viaducts, as I 19 showed you in the early stages of the project. We 20 looked at a third one, which was remove the existing 21 viaduct and the two levels that are out there and 22 replace with a brand new one­level alternative. So, 23 at least we got half of the height there. 24 And then we always ­­ we looked at sort Arlington Reporting Company
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17 1 of where we started. What if we rehabilitated 2 everything, compared it to the goals that we 3 established for the project. And, of course, for 4 environmental purposes, we also have to look at a no 5 build alternative. 6 This is the first at­grade alternative 7 we had back when we finished our initial 8 brainstorming, how we developed it. And it had an at­
9 grade roadway along ­­ I’ll orientate you. This is 10 where we are right now, the Heritage Park. This is 11 the Battleship Cove area. This is two very 12 distinctive mill buildings. Central Street is right 13 here, Milliken Boulevard, Pocasset, Anawan Street, and 14 the gate to the City down here. So, the main design 15 feature here was to take the upper level, create ­­ 16 everything that’s in blue is an at­grade roadway, so 17 it’s on the ground. It’s asphalt and gravel. The 18 orange are new structures that have to be built. So, 19 this feature, these set of signals, it features a lot 20 of the ramps that were still here that our task force 21 asked us to take a look at. And this one, as you can 22 see, eliminated a lot of the ramps in the middle. And 23 the way we did that is we connected the at­grade 24 roadway that stayed pretty much the same across to Arlington Reporting Company
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18 1 Milliken Boulevard, had ramps coming off directly from 2 I­195, and allowed us to get rid of some of these 3 ramps. 4 There were some real issues with this. 5 Some of it was traffic on 79 that was going to I­195. 6 It had to go through an extra around the block kind of 7 movement. These ramps didn’t have enough storage to 8 make them work, but it helped us pull some of the 9 features out of this interchange that later on we will 10 11 use. This is what ­­ this is a little 12 rendering of what the at­grade alternative would do, 13 which is sort of through that corner right at Pocasset 14 and Anawan Street where the mill buildings are. There 15 are no structures up in the air here. It’s a 16 signalized intersection. 17 This is what a replacement viaduct 18 would look like. So, it’s side­by­side. It has to 19 have some kind of ramp connection to get up in the 20 air. So they are real minimum radiuses for design. 21 And it wasn’t very popular because it still put a 22 structure back up in the air. This is what the modern 23 structure would look like. Our structural engineer, 24 Darren, gets very excited when he sees pictures of Arlington Reporting Company
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19 1 this kind of, you know, trapezoidal concrete and steel 2 box beams. Mike, is that right? 3 MICHAEL O’DOWD: Yes, Rod. 4 ROD EMERY: But, you know, it’s still a 5 structure up ­­ it’s a bridge up in the air. It’s a 6 new bridge, but it’s up in the air. 7 This is basically rehabbing the old 8 alternative. So, we had to ­­ again, as I said, we 9 had to look at that. 10 This is what ­­ basically an artist’s 11 rendering of what you have out there looks like. So 12 you can see the progression and visual clutter that 13 happens as we go. 14 So, in September of last year, we tried 15 to take the best features of ­­ we had a sense that 16 the at­grade alternative was sort of emerging, but it 17 had some flaws in it. So, we took the best features 18 of each. We found a way to tie a roadway across 19 Milliken, but not be the main ramp connection to 195. 20 We couldn’t have that off­ramp to Milliken, but at 21 least we had a connection here. 22 I’ll call it ramped out, but if you’re 23 at the intersection of Milliken and Central, there’s a 24 quick on­ramp that is very, very hard to ­­ it’s a Arlington Reporting Company
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20 1 very dangerous kind of move. It’s a quick on­ramp and 2 up over a hump. So, we decided to try to get rid of 3 that ramp. We put it back into this movement so it’s 4 not a very big diversion. It ended up with an extra 5 signal here, but it allowed us to have a connection 6 from down here at Water Street all the way across so 7 locally you could get across here with a shared use 8 path, a pedestrian path, as well as a vehicle path if 9 you were local traffic. But if you’re a regional 10 vehicle, you can go back to the ramps. So, we called 11 this the hybrid alternative back in September. 12 13 14 Let’s see if I forgot anything. No, that’s pretty much it. This was a key point here, the corner 15 of this mill building. If we touched ­­ if we had to 16 impact that building, we were into a long permitting 17 process. So, it allowed us to shrink the roadway 18 section through there to miss that. It allowed us to 19 have much better access directly to the waterfront. 20 As I said before, we had a bunch of 21 goals and objectives. This preferred alternative at­
22 grade best addressed the purpose of the need: 23 structurally deficient bridges. It still maintained 24 mobility and access to the regional system. It Arlington Reporting Company
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21 1 minimized all of the environmental impacts. And, 2 again, the environmental impacts are not necessarily 3 something you can’t overcome. You can mitigate them, 4 but if any of them are large enough or cause us to go 5 into a large permitting process, then we’ve lost too 6 much time to stay within the program. It supported 7 the economic goals. Travel time and socioeconomic 8 data we’ve looked at, and it improved all of those 9 features of the project. Frank Mahady is here who did 10 our socioeconomic work. It minimizes the social 11 impacts throughout the project. 12 Again, the checklist on the at­grade. 13 Mobility, it still maintains those critical regional 14 connections that we have to have to satisfy MassDOT 15 and Federal Highway to fund the project. It provides 16 safer and more efficient traffic operations. It 17 vastly improves the bicycle and pedestrian 18 connections. It minimizes ­­ great spelling job there 19 I did ­­ the environmental impacts to the environment, 20 and avoids or minimizes most of the historic ­­ I’m 21 going to go into a little more detail on historic 22 structures. And we spent a lot of time in the last 23 several months getting into the historic structures. 24 Visual, local businesses, and cost, all of those were Arlington Reporting Company
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22 1 part of the preferred alternative. So, it was a win­
2 win all the way around. The hybrid alternative has continued to 3 4 evolve as we refine the concept design, as we’ll call 5 it right now, as we looked at profiles in more detail, 6 as we looked at some of the issues that we found in 7 starting to design the bridges. We changed from the ­
8 ­ we added some features to this hybrid alternative. 9 One of them was to make the Water Street connector, 10 that new connection from the at­grade roadway down to 11 Water Street, two­way so it opened up better access. 12 I talked about removing Ramp L. This signalized 13 intersection had Milliken replace that road split. 14 So, those were some of the features we started look 15 with ­­ summarizing what we did with the hybrid 16 alternative. 17 This is I think the genesis of all of 18 those improvements. Again, it’s the at­grade roadway. 19 It has Ramp L removed. It has the signalized 20 intersection on the ramp. And I’m going to talk a lot 21 about this intersection in a few minutes, and it ties 22 to Milliken Boulevard. 23 24 So, this is where we are today. I’m going to talk a little bit about what issues we’re Arlington Reporting Company
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23 1 looking at now as we try to finalize the environmental 2 impact. It’s important for us to make sure we’ve got 3 enough design that they can be fully evaluated in the 4 environmental process and then we go into final 5 design. We actually get into more micro details on 6 it. 7 The signalized intersection, I’m going 8 to talk a little bit about that Milliken signal. I’m 9 going to talk about the impacts here to Heritage Park. 10 That would be a 4f and 106 kind of process. The 11 Frontage Road down at the Community Boating, we 12 impacted that access. We have a driveway that comes 13 from 18 Pocasset Street that would be right at the 14 Anawan intersection that poses a problem for us 15 operations­wise, and some of the streets that we’re 16 discontinuing as part of this process. 17 We have the Water Street connector 18 flies right over the railroad tracks. The South Coast 19 Rail Project is proposing a station here. So we had 20 to try to situate the bridge and the structure away 21 from the tracks, like build a canopy and get access to 22 that. And, lastly, we’ll just have ­­ I’ll talk about 23 the big picture on construction impact. 24 As I said before, our preferred Arlington Reporting Company
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24 1 alternative is a series of at­grade alternatives. One 2 of the issues that we haven’t solved yet is this 3 intersection coming up, the new ramps heading toward 4 195 and down to Milliken Boulevard. Back in September 5 when we had the hybrid alterative, this was a fully 6 signalized intersection. And we started our 7 evaluation with ­­ it works from a traffic point of 8 view. It has enough capacity to work. We actually 9 looked at roundabouts instead of signals to see if it 10 would work better. The topography of a downgrade 11 doesn’t work for a roundabout there. 12 It had some concerns about this is 13 pretty close to the Braga Bridge off­ramp. And if 14 traffic backs up from this ramp, it would impact the 15 off­ramp and safety of that. So, back in January we 16 turned it into what we call the half signal. We had 17 the signal coming up the ramps. We had no signal 18 going down the ramps. And, just recently, we had some 19 concerns about one of the movements that was missing, 20 which was not being able to take a left here. So we 21 put ­­ we looked at a way to restore one of the 22 movements, which was to put a left in from ­­ coming 23 off the ramps from Braga Bridge or from 195, and the 24 through traffic continuing down without stopping, but Arlington Reporting Company
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25 1 the lefts having a signalized intersection. So 2 there’s still some safety concerns with the traffic 3 back up toward the ramp with that design. So, these we’re still currently 4 5 evaluating as part of the alternatives, but they don’t 6 have big impacts on the environmental ­­ adverse 7 impacts on environmental. So, we’ll carry those 8 through a little bit further before we conclude on 9 those. 10 Heritage Park, it’s, as I said, 4f. 11 This is what the structures look like today. We 12 obviously have this two­level viaduct sitting next to 13 the Frontage Road to Davol Street. What we ended up 14 doing was we ended up dropping the roadways down and 15 by having a little bit of a wall here, a little bit of 16 a wall here, and then a ramp coming off of 195 just 17 touching down there, we were able to fit this cross­
18 section without having any takings from either the 19 railroad or from the 4f property. We’ll have slopes 20 that may impact it and we’re going to have to build 21 the slope on state park land. But this was a very 22 acceptable kind of condition from an environmental 23 point of view. 24 The new design changes, the alignment Arlington Reporting Company
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26 1 approaching the Community Boating, they have a parking 2 lot right here. They have an in and out that, you 3 know, is at one end of the parking lot and begins down 4 here. This would now be right in the middle of a 5 merge maneuver happening on the on­ramp down here. 6 So, just as you’re coming off of this Frontage 7 Road/Davol Street today, coming back onto this new at­
8 grade roadway, you would have a driveway coming out. 9 So, it forced us to try to reconfigure the driveway 10 entrance a little bit and probably make the aisles 11 two­way here. So, it’s a minor impact, but we wanted 12 to make sure we started to take care of these small 13 issues as we went. 14 There’s a driveway that today ­­ I know 15 Al is here that I met with last week ­­ this driveway 16 would be right at the new intersection formed as this 17 structure becomes removed, this driveway ends up being 18 a problem if it exits right at the intersection of 19 Central ­­ I mean Anawan and Pocasset. So, we’re 20 working on a way to relocate that within the property 21 and still maintain access so we can have a signalized 22 intersection work fine and, yet, still maintain access 23 to the property. 24 Canal Street today flows underneath Arlington Reporting Company
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27 1 down at Davol Street. With our interchange ­­ this is 2 the picture of it ­­ it would be hard to bring that 3 into ­­ this is where the ramps take off. So that 4 would be re­routed or closed. I just want to make 5 sure that we brought that issue up. 6 This is a picture of this is the ramps 7 going up to the ­­ up to 195. So, Canal Street would 8 have to be looped around and continue that way. So, 9 it becomes more of a local neighborhood street at this 10 point. 15 Harbor Terrace, it would be located ­­ this 11 end of Harbor Terrace would be right at a new 12 signalized intersection at Central Street. We would 13 still maintain walking pedestrian access, but we would 14 ­­ it would be very difficult to have people stream in 15 right at the major turn for getting onto the new at­
16 grade roadway. 17 I just talked about this. So this is 18 what the proposal looks like. This is the off­ramp, 19 one of the off­ramps if you’re going into Central 20 Street or here. And that would be a difficult 21 maneuver. 22 I said we just have a quick slide on 23 construction. Construction is about a four­year 24 construction process. You can obviously see that we Arlington Reporting Company
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28 1 can’t close the City of Fall River down. It’s going 2 to have to be done in stages. It will start in about 3 two years. It will involve, hopefully, signing some 4 routes up on Route 24 that say, look it, you’re 5 traveling through the area and you don’t need to go 6 through this interchange, go down Route 24 and then 7 down 195. So, if you’re a long distance traveler, we 8 will try to divert your travel path. Local detours, as you see out there 9 10 today, a ramp here and there gets changed. We won’t 11 close the whole interchange down at one time. We’ll 12 do it in small steps. Part of the viaduct will be removed in 13 14 one big initial step. We will definitely have some 15 local detours, but we will maintain access to abutting 16 properties as best we can and do the small ramp 17 closures. 18 I have one slide here on environmental 19 process. We’re in the environmental review. We’re at 20 the end stages of that. We have to deal with the 21 national review, NEPA, and the MEPA, which is our 22 local Massachusetts review. We have combined ­­ and I 23 don’t think this has happened very often ­­ the NF is 24 usually the first step in the environmental process. Arlington Reporting Company
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29 1 It’s sort of a checklist of what the impacts are 2 without a lot of detail on them. You get some 3 feedback. You get some guidance from MEPA. And then 4 you do the EA, which is the federal document. So, to 5 save some time, they’ve allowed us to try to combine 6 those into one document. 7 So that’s where we are right now. 8 We’re trying to finalize the ENF and EA. It will take 9 advantage of all the things I’ve said we’ve been 10 working on so far. We took a while to develop and 11 really tighten a helpful purpose and need. We’ve 12 analyzed the existing environment. We will analyze 13 all those alternatives, carry them through the 14 process, make sure that we document all the impacts. 15 We just had a hearing last night on the wetlands 16 issues. And we got some very good feedback, and then 17 whatever the mitigation is from the environmental 18 process. And then when this step is done, which we 19 hope is very soon, we’ll actually be able to start the 20 design process. 21 The next steps, whatever the key issues 22 are that I talked about, we need to resolve those. 23 It’s an ongoing process, this concept design. We keep 24 refining the design until the day we start actually Arlington Reporting Company
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30 1 doing final design. We’re going to file the EA and 2 ENF hopefully in June. That allows us then to start 3 doing the 25 percent design plans. This project, to 4 accelerate its construction, will go, after the 25 5 percent design, will go to a design­build process to 6 have a contractor hired early. And, hopefully, 7 construction begins in 2013 with the construction done 8 in 2016. 9 Be aware that the ENF will be 10 circulated. It will be available on MassDOT’s 11 website, and I’m sure there will be copies locally 12 available in different places. 13 There’s mailing lists. Make sure you 14 sign in, as Amy said. We will have other meetings 15 coming up like this one to keep you updated on where 16 we stand. And this is the website that you can check. 17 If you just go on ­­ if you just type MassDOT and Fall 18 River, you’ll find your way into the ­­ if you can’t 19 remember the entire check there. 20 21 22 23 24 I think that’s it. I’ll leave this up for a minute in case anyone wants to see it. I think that’s ­­ is Mike taking over at this point? MODERATOR MICHAEL O’DOWD: Good Arlington Reporting Company
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31 1 evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Michael 2 O’Dowd. Amy and I work together at MassDOT in the 3 Accelerated Bridge Program. 4 We’d be happy to answer any questions 5 directed to DOT or the designers here tonight 6 developing this project. Any of you who have joined 7 us before or the task force members, you are pretty 8 well I guess educated on all of the steps that have 9 been taken to date. 10 A couple of things I was thinking about 11 when Amy and Rod were talking. I can’t express to you 12 how important this, for you here tonight, but also for 13 DOT, to actually move forward with this project. The 14 project has had a history of well over 15 years. And 15 over the last 15 years, all of you have seen the 16 structure, in some of the photographs that were 17 presented earlier, how deteriorated it has become over 18 that 15­year period. 19 The Accelerated Bridge Program that was 20 signed into law in 2008 by Governor Patrick has really 21 given DOT and the City of Fall River opportunity. And 22 this is a huge opportunity. Funding is always 23 critical to any project of this magnitude. And the 24 Accelerated Bridge Program has provided the funding Arlington Reporting Company
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32 1 that we need and that you need to see this project 2 through successfully. Safety is a major concern for any 3 4 public works agency, especially DOT. Safety is a 5 concern for us right now, which is why we released a 6 $10 million contract to maintain the safety of the 7 ramps for access to and from the interstate and to and 8 from the waterfront and the local downtown. Opportunity: We’re looking at several 9 10 opportunities here that never existed before since the 11 structure was built in the ‘60s. City officials have 12 expressed their concern that it really has limited the 13 opportunities that exist in the waterfront, limited 14 the opportunities for people to access the waterfront 15 from the downtown area. So, we see this as the 16 opportunity to improve that access, increase that 17 access. So, safety and regional and local access and 18 mobility. 19 Ultimately, this serves 195. This is 20 the interstate, of utmost importance to us and our 21 partners at Federal Highway Administration who 22 regulate and monitor the safety and the access and 23 mobility on the interstate to and from the state 24 highway system. So, we see this as ­­ and I don’t Arlington Reporting Company
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33 1 want this to sound like a pun because Charlie Sheen is 2 out doing his thing all the time now ­­ a win­win. 3 This is a win­win for everybody here. The monies are 4 there. The interest is there. The opportunities are 5 here. DOT wants it to happen to such an extent that 6 the Secretary of Transportation has been down here. 7 We walked through this whole project with him. The 8 Chief Engineer, the Administrator, several of the 9 elected officials and state representatives, MassDOT’s 10 Board of Directors, and the Accelerated Bridge Program 11 Council ­­ there is nobody in DOT administration that 12 does not want to see this happen. It is of critical 13 importance for this to move forward, but we can’t do 14 it without your support. 15 And this is why we’re here tonight, to 16 listen to you. We’ve done this once before. 17 Obviously, we’ve met several times with the task 18 force. So, we’ve gone through a number of iterations. 19 We want to know. We want your feedback on this. We 20 want to see whether or not you are in agreement with 21 the direct method alternative that DOT has developed 22 to this point in time. And, as Rod pointed out, the 23 analysis will continue to be refined as we move 24 forward, as we present it in the Environmental Arlington Reporting Company
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34 1 Notification Form and the Environmental Assessment, 2 both of which will become available to you to publicly 3 comment on here or written. So, it will be made 4 available to you either by mail or through the public 5 libraries, through your elected officials’ offices, 6 through city hall. And we ask that you open respond 7 in writing to us and Federal Highway. The document is 8 submitted out into the public, or made available to 9 the public via Federal Highway. So, we ask that your 10 comments are sent back to Federal Highway and 11 ourselves at DOT. 12 ROD EMERY: Positive comments as well. 13 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Pardon me? 14 ROD EMERY: Positive comments as well. 15 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Positive comments as 16 well if you like this. We often receive a lot of 17 criticisms. Very rarely do we receive compliments. 18 So, we’ll take them both. 19 With that, questions. Before I open it 20 up to the public though, I would like to ask if there 21 are elected officials in the audience, please stand, 22 state your name, and the floor is yours. 23 24 Any elected officials? Yes, sir? COUNCILOR MICHAEL LUND: Michael Lund, Arlington Reporting Company
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35 1 2 President of Fall River City Council. Thank you for meeting down here. I 3 think, as everybody has said, to tap Fall River’s 4 potential is the access to the waterfront. 5 I just have two quick questions. What 6 will be the available acreage for a potential private 7 development by dropping 79 and eliminating the ramps 8 within that area that will bring really the long­term 9 development that we’re looking for? 10 And then, two, as part of this permit 11 process is MassDOT anticipating what that private 12 development will require for permitting, and are they 13 looking to do any of that along the way? Because if 14 you finish this in 2016, the state owns all the land 15 around it. So, it’s going to be a long process in 16 terms of dividing that up and encouraging private 17 development. And then there’s going to be a long 18 permitting process in order to even get something 19 started and folks shovel ready. So, has DOT looked at 20 incorporating any of that as you’re going through 21 these steps so that when it is complete perhaps some 22 of the developers waiting in the wings are ready to 23 hit the ground running? 24 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Thank you. Good Arlington Reporting Company
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36 1 question. We received many of those comments and 2 questions during the task force and during some of our 3 meetings with elected officials. MassDOT’s primary 4 function and responsibilities are for safety, 5 mobility, and, under this program, fixing structurally 6 deficient bridges. We have in excess of ­­ well, 7 simple span bridge structures, I won’t say how many of 8 them are structurally deficient, but it’s a fair 9 amount of them. We want to remove them and replace 10 them, remove them entirely from our inventory if at 11 all possible. And, if not, we will replace them. 12 As far as the economic development 13 potential, the real estate that may be achieved as a 14 result of removing the overhead structures is still 15 going to remain with MassDOT’s real estate. The 16 opportunities that exist are the opportunities that 17 enhance the access to and from 195 down to the local 18 waterfront, down to the state highway. That’s where 19 the improvement is. That’s where we see the 20 improvement, the opportunities that exist for the 21 future of City development, where DOT is providing the 22 safe accessibility and the functions of the highways 23 and the interstate, and then we’ll leave it up to the 24 City to see best how to fulfill their economic Arlington Reporting Company
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37 1 development potential as a result of DOT dropping the 2 viaduct. 3 COUNCILOR MICHAEL LUND: Well, will 4 private investment have the opportunity to access some 5 of that land that will be created? 6 MODERATOR O’DOWD: I think that’s an 7 opportunity that exists with anything that DOT holds. 8 But, once again, our charge right now is to complete 9 the construction and a replacement of the structurally 10 deficient bridges and maintain the safety, access, and 11 mobility of the interstate and state highway system. 12 The opportunities for development exist after 2016. 13 You had mentioned “if we complete it.” I can’t use 14 “if.” I have to say when we complete it. 2016, for 15 all of you that aren’t familiar with some of the 16 constraints that exist under the Accelerated Bridge 17 Program, the funding has an expiration date at the end 18 of 2016. So this is why the urgency behind moving 19 this project as quickly as we can. It’s taken 15 20 years to get to this point and now we’re trying to 21 squeeze it all together within the next couple of 22 years. So, you can sense the urgency in my voice and 23 the urgency in the design and permitting. 24 ROD EMERY: Just as a follow up, in our Arlington Reporting Company
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38 1 model, in our traffic projections, over a million 2 square feet of new development is what they’re 3 forecasting for the design. So, from a sizing and a 4 toleration point of view, we did take into account 5 what could be developed. 6 COUNCILOR MICHAEL LUND: Perhaps as the 7 project matures, DOT should look at assembling a 8 committee so that when this does reach its completion 9 it’s not dragged down. 10 MODERATOR O’DOWD: It’s probably best 11 for the City Council and yourself, Michael, to contact 12 our real estate section and just discuss with them 13 what opportunities exist in DOT real estate as a 14 result of this project moving forward conceptually. I 15 think that’s a good opportunity for the City 16 government that it needs to know. 17 18 COUNCILOR MICHAEL LUND: Thank you. And thanks again for coming. 19 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Thank you. 20 Any other questions? Anybody from the 21 22 public? Yes, sir? TOM ABNER: Hi. My name is Tom Abner 23 and I’m from the Lower Highlands Historic Downtown 24 Neighborhood Association. And we prepared a short Arlington Reporting Company
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39 1 comment here having partially seen the thing. And I 2 have several copies here that I’ll give to you folks. 3 4 5 Briefly, it reads ­­ this has been reviewed by several members of the organization. Regarding the proposal to remove the 6 elevated section of Route 79, the Lower Highlands 7 Historic Downtown Neighborhood Association would like 8 to recommend the inclusion of one or two footbridges 9 leading from the Durfee Street neighborhood, which is 10 near the north of the existing I­195. 11 Go back to the Harbor Street because 12 we’re going to talk ­­ I want to talk to that, too. 13 Leading from the Durfee Street 14 neighborhood to the waterfront area, across the 15 railroad tracks, and what I’m describing as the Route 16 79 replacement road. At present time, there is no 17 access between these areas for businesses nearly a 18 mile from Central Street to Turner Street. Prior to 19 the 1960s, there was a connection from the foot of 20 Walnut Street to Davol Street across the railroad. 21 The abutments for that bridge still exist on the 22 Walnut Street end, including the eastern hanger for 23 such a footbridge. Another possible location could be 24 the bottom of Pine Street. Arlington Reporting Company
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40 1 Creating these pedestrian bridges would 2 encourage enhanced use of Heritage State Park by local 3 residents and ease the congestions before, during, and 4 after the Audubon events. A footbridge such as we are 5 proposing was recently built in the Indian Point 6 neighborhood of Providence during a relocation of I­
7 195. The Association requests that you seriously 8 consider pedestrian access in planning this project. 9 Our members are also concerned that the 10 plan that was shown to us would dead­end Harbor Street 11 or Harbor Terrace, as it’s shown on this map, for 12 vehicles, restricting access to Central Street to 13 pedestrians. Our concern has to do with possibilities 14 where that as a dead­end street it could become a 15 dumping ground for stolen or abandoned vehicles and 16 other trash. We ask that you please reconsider this 17 part of the proposal. And having looked at this site 18 myself, looked at this, if it were one way outbound 19 off Central Street, you wouldn’t have to worry about 20 traffic feeding into that, which I think would be the 21 major concern. 22 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Mm hum. Mm hum. 23 TOM ABNER: And that’s the extent of 24 it. Arlington Reporting Company
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41 1 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Sure. Thank you. 2 TOM ABNER: Would you like to take 3 these as well? 4 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Sure. 5 TOM ABNER: There’s five copies there. 6 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Thank you very much. 7 Just to reassure you, one of the 8 greatest concerns on this whole project from the start 9 has always been how can we improve the access for 10 pedestrians on the downtown side or Harbor Terrace 11 side of 79 to the waterfront, which has led to can we 12 provide safe access with the use of traffic signals, 13 signalized intersections at Central Street at the 14 intersection of Route 79 with Davol Street, and in 15 what capacity. And then also once again at the Water 16 Street Connector, as we’re calling it. So, that has 17 always been driven by the fact that we’re striving to 18 increase foot traffic safely across Route 79 down to 19 the waterfront and down along the boardwalk. So 20 that’s always been a concern of ours. And we feel 21 that we’ve been able to achieve that without the use 22 of the pedestrian footbridge as you mentioned earlier. 23 So, but we will take that into consideration with your 24 comment. Arlington Reporting Company
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42 1 Thank you. 2 TOM ABNER: Thank you. 3 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Yes, sir. 4 JAMES KARAM: Michael, let me just re­
5 emphasize what I said to you earlier today, this 6 evening. MODERATOR O’DOWD: Sure. Please state 7 8 9 your name. JAMES KARAM: I’m sorry. Jim Karam. 10 The name of the company is Bristol Corporation. I’m a 11 real estate developer that owns several buildings in 12 the CDD area. And I heard your engineer speak to a 13 number of considerations, and I would hope he’s 14 addressed the economic enhancement of the downtown 15 area. I haven’t heard that. But what I’m especially 16 concerned about is the Milliken Boulevard off­ramp. 17 We own several large buildings, the 18 most prominent buildings in the downtown area. 19 There’s 100,000 square feet in two buildings. They 20 are completely occupied. And the reason they’re 21 completely occupied is they are regional companies ­­ 22 Bank of America, who has a regional office that 23 services from Seekonk to Cape Cod. There’s a large 24 medical group that service from Swansea through New Arlington Reporting Company
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43 1 Bedford. There’s an insurance company, Hub Insurance 2 Company, who is owned by Feitelberg in Chicago that 3 operates from 128 to Rhode Island. And they’re here 4 for one thing ­­ regional accessibility. 5 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Sure. 6 JAMES KARAM: If you close Milliken 7 Boulevard, you’re going to kill the downtown area. 8 Now, if we have plans to build a downtown someplace 9 else, maybe this works. But I’m telling your 10 engineers right now. And I know the battle cry is 11 going to be safety. Safety is dollars. You can 12 create safety any way you want. It’s only dollars. 13 It’s only money. 14 So, Milliken Boulevard, Michael, I 15 would just tell you and the City Council, if they 16 allow Milliken Boulevard to be closed off from 195 17 west, you’re going to kill the downtown area. So, 18 just, please, we’ll be following it. I’ve got a 19 number of building owners who are concerned, not only 20 myself, but others in the downtown area. And we’ll be 21 following this. We look forward to supporting it. 22 But if you close off Milliken Boulevard, we’re going 23 to be forced to object to this plan and we’re going to 24 need to do that. We’ll be contacting ­­ I know some Arlington Reporting Company
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44 1 of this is dictated by the federal government. 2 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Sure. 3 JAMES KARAM: But we’ll be contacting 4 the senator’s office and our congressmen. But, again, 5 please consider keeping Milliken Boulevard open. MODERATOR O’DOWD: Thank you for your 6 7 comments. 8 9 earlier in the evening while the model was open for 10 11 Jim had expressed his comments to us display and the public was standing around it. The alternative that ­­ there we go ­­ 12 that Jim was referring to is this has gone through a 13 number of different refinements. As time has passed, 14 the task force has really expressed to us some of 15 their major concerns, issues that they would like to 16 see resolved. How could we do this ­­ ultimately, it 17 all started out with what is it going to take to 18 remove the viaduct? So, that became the number one 19 priority. Can we remove the viaduct? And, if so, 20 what can it be replaced with? Secondly, how can we 21 remove the viaduct but still be able to maintain all 22 of the movements and connections to and from the 23 interstate for the state highway system and to and 24 from the interstate and the state highway system from Arlington Reporting Company
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45 1 the downtown area and the waterfront? 2 It’s been a challenge. I think some of 3 the screen slides have shown challenges. There’s been 4 a number of challenges on this. We’ve managed them 5 all. We’ve addressed them all. This most recent one 6 that Jim mentioned to us just this evening was brought 7 to my attention by the elected officials and the city 8 officials because they feel there is a concern 9 regarding the circulation within the downtown area and 10 how best it can be achieved from the interstate to the 11 developments and the office spaces that exist on 12 Milliken Boulevard. 13 So, you know, we’ve gone from the full 14 signal, which MassDOT and Federal Highway traffic 15 engineering officials had concern with because there 16 was a potential for queuing on the ramp system back 17 onto Interstate 195 eastbound. So, we went to the 18 next ­­ what is the next option available to us? We 19 put the traffic engineers in a room and let them 20 brainstorm and they offered something else. The next 21 one was the half signal. And, as Rod pointed out 22 earlier, the half signal was able to ­­ two things 23 with the half signal. Number one, it removed Ramp L, 24 which there’s a lot of designations. It’s alphabet Arlington Reporting Company
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46 1 soup out here in spaghetti ramps. Ramp L is the 2 connection that takes you from the downtown area, it 3 sort of merges in with the ramp system ­­ I think it’s 4 Ramp C. Is that Ramp C, Rod? It merges in with Ramp 5 C. 6 ROD EMERY: Right. 7 MODERATOR O’DOWD: You can see removing 8 9 10 Ramp L. ROD EMERY: Here’s Ramp L. MODERATOR O’DOWD: As a result of 11 putting in the signalized intersection right over 12 there between Milliken and what we call Ramp Y, we’ve 13 been able to remove Ramp L. That was a huge benefit 14 because there was ­­ that merge at Ramp L and Ramp ­­ 15 is that C or G? 16 ROD EMERY: C. C. 17 MODERATOR O’DOWD: It’s C. Ramp C was 18 a safety concern of ours because it was high speeds as 19 you were approaching the interstate. So, everybody is 20 trying to accelerate to get up to the same gain line 21 speeds that are on Interstate 195. 22 So, that’s how that signal came about. 23 We were able to relocate that traffic onto Ramp Y back 24 out onto the interstate, safely back out onto the Arlington Reporting Company
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47 1 interstate without having to have a blind side merge. 2 However, as a result of that, the issue became is 3 there a potential for queuing from 195 heading east 4 down onto Davol Street and Milliken Boulevard with 5 that signal. And that was what led us to say we don’t 6 feel comfortable with the DOT ­­ although the 7 opportunities for access to the downtown area is very 8 important for us, we can never compromise or subject 9 ourselves to compromising safety. So, we had to look 10 11 is there a way of doing this. We felt that we had a reasonable access 12 certainly coming off the highway going down to Davol 13 Street and also coming from Milliken and approaching 14 the interstate highway system. You would be forced to 15 have to go down to Davol Street, take a right, and 16 then take another right on Pocasset and get access to 17 the downtown area via that way. 18 That created another challenge, as was 19 pointed out to me very recently by the City officials. 20 So now we are going back again, brainstorming once 21 again. And it seems, fortunately for us ­­ and I say 22 fortunately because when you look at the number of 23 challenges that we’ve been faced with to get to this 24 point, I feel confident that this is the last one. Arlington Reporting Company
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48 1 I’ve asked City officials, elected officials, state 2 and local, is this the last hurdle that they see in 3 moving forward with the proposal that DOT is 4 recommending? And there was a resounding yes. This 5 is it. This is very important for the opportunities 6 that exist for employment in the downtown area to have 7 access from the interstate. 8 9 So, that’s why we’re not here to say no, we’re not doing it, but it is under further 10 evaluation and analysis that DOT traffic engineers, 11 Federal Highway engineering staff will have to sit 12 down and see can we reach a compromise on this when we 13 feel that we provided the opportunities for employment 14 but not at a cost of compromising safety because of 15 the type of strength that exists there. There are 16 high speeds coming off of the interstate as you’re 17 getting off the ramp there. Sight distance is at a 18 minimum. And we want to ensure that the sight 19 distance and the geometrics of that ramp system will 20 safely accommodate that left turn movement. 21 So, I’m not rejecting the proposal and 22 your concerns, but it is under further analysis right 23 now. And we can bring that forward as the 24 environmental documents and the design progresses. Arlington Reporting Company
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49 1 Yes, sir? 2 JOHN CARVALHO: My name is John 3 Carvalho. I’m a local business owner here in the City 4 as well. And I’d like to echo Mr. Karam’s 5 6 sentiments. That ramp right there would pretty much 7 put an end to the traffic in the downtown segment. 8 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Okay. 9 JOHN CARVALHO: And, in addition to 10 that, which I’ll put in writing to your office, too, 11 by the way. 12 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Thank you. 13 JOHN CARVALHO: I must have missed 14 something because I’m hearing a lot of talk about foot 15 traffic. But did I miss any foot traffic access from 16 the Water Street side and the Central Street side? Is 17 there any consideration for foot traffic at all? 18 19 20 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Mm hum. Yes, there is. Do you want to walk him through it? ROD EMERY: Sure. All of these 21 crossings of the new at­grade roadway are signalized 22 and have pedestrian movements, or phases, and 23 crosswalks. We have three new corridors to cross: 24 down Central, down Anawan, and this new connector. Arlington Reporting Company
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50 1 JOHN CARVALHO: Yeah. 2 ROD EMERY: In addition, this is what 3 we’re calling a shared use path. So, we’ll widen out 4 this path. It’s going to be a multiuse path for bikes 5 and pedestrians to come all the way across, all the 6 way up, and all the way there. And that doesn’t exist 7 today. We will have shoulders built along this at­
8 grade roadway that will accommodate bicycles. So, 9 we’re only at a concept level. 10 JOHN CARVALHO: Well, what about the 11 Central Street pedestrian access? The reason I ask is 12 because on several occasions throughout the year, the 13 pedestrians of Fall River accessed that waterfront 14 extensively. So, and you have a lot of kids who live 15 in Heritage Heights ­­ 16 ROD EMERY: Sure. 17 JOHN CARVALHO: ­­ that are constantly 18 going to get ­­ try to get across the traffic. 19 ROD EMERY: Yes. 20 JOHN CARVALHO: And I don’t see a 21 viable way for children or young adults to get across 22 there to access what we’re trying to promote as a 23 public use waterfront area. 24 ROD EMERY: Sure. Well, I mean today Arlington Reporting Company
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51 1 you have stop signs on Central but none of this 2 traffic stops. This is a four­way stop, which is like 3 a roulette game. 4 JOHN CARVALHO: Yeah. Right. 5 ROD EMERY: So this crossing at Central 6 Street will be signalized. It will stop the traffic, 7 have the pedestrian phase cross the street with the 8 protected. So, all of these have that protective 9 crossing element in them. So, I think that greatly 10 improves the safety of those crossings. Plus, we have all these sidewalks. I 11 12 mean today walking under the viaducts, there’s very 13 dark and very narrow sidewalks on those things. So, 14 all these are expanded sidewalk areas as well. So, 15 the boardwalk will be continuous, you know, all the 16 way along Davol Street, all the way through this whole 17 corridor. JOHN CARVALHO: Is there no ability 18 19 within the plan to consider a pedestrian footbridge 20 over that Central Street area like they have in 21 Providence? 22 MODERATOR O’DOWD: There was 23 consideration given to that earlier on in the project 24 development planning process. But there’s really no ­
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52 1 ­ well, first off, one thing that you need to keep in 2 mind is pedestrian footpaths are great if you’re only 3 looking at it from an opportunity to climb staircases 4 and go over. But you also have to provide handicap 5 accessibility, which requires a significant transition 6 to and from the actual footbridge itself. You can 7 never exceed greater than a 5 percent transition slope 8 for that purpose. So, in doing so, your transitions 9 are going to extend out ­­ JOHN CARVALHO: Well, those both exist 10 11 right now currently down Central Street and on the 12 other side. The reason I think it’s a point, a focal 13 point, is because Fall River just recently subsided, 14 hopefully, on Fall River Celebrates America. But for 15 many, many years, tens of thousands of people 16 traversed that particular intersection. 17 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Okay. 18 JOHN CARVALHO: Tens of thousands. 19 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Sure. 20 JOHN CARVALHO: And, therefore, in an 21 effort to develop that waterfront again, we have to 22 make it accessible to the public and not just for 23 traffic. 24 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Well, that’s what Arlington Reporting Company
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53 1 we’re doing. I mean the signalized ­­ the whole point 2 of a signalized operation is to make it a more safe, a 3 comfortable crossing for pedestrians, handicapped and 4 able bodied. So, whether it be students, or whether 5 it be mature adults that are walking across that, 6 having that sequence or having that phase where you 7 are able to have an exclusive pedestrian phase, which 8 stops all the motor vehicle traffic so that you can 9 have that safe crossing, that’s critical to the design 10 and the operation of the intersections that Rod has 11 been developing. So, we’re not minimizing foot traffic. 12 13 We’re accommodating it safely with the use of the 14 traffic signals. JOHN CARVALHO: I understand the 15 16 traffic signals, but the sequence for the traffic 17 signal would be extensively long and people would 18 begin to circumvent the safety of the traffic signal 19 in order to get across ­­ four lanes of traffic am I 20 looking at now? MODERATOR O’DOWD: It would be four 21 22 23 24 lanes, yes. JOHN CARVALHO: Four lanes. So, someone in a wheelchair is going to sit there and wait Arlington Reporting Company
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54 1 for the traffic signal to come around. I just think 2 if it wasn’t a huge expense ­­ what’s the price of 3 this project? MODERATOR O’DOWD: $170 million in 4 5 6 total costs. JOHN CARVALHO: So I think Jacobs, in 7 their infinite wisdom in the engineering aspect of it, 8 might be able to fit a piece of it together so that 9 the pedestrians of Fall River can have unfettered 10 access to what is currently considered one of our most 11 important assets within the City. 12 13 MODERATOR O’DOWD: What I would ask you to do is submit that comment in writing to us. 14 JOHN CARVALHO: Okay. 15 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Thank you. 16 STEVEN CAMARA: Steven Camara. I 17 attended most of the meetings. And I did raise this 18 issue as well. And I’m glad that you raised it. I 19 haven’t spoken to him, so this is just an opportune 20 time of walking in and the issue is on the table. 21 I’m also co­founder of the Lower 22 Highlands Historic Downtown Neighborhood Association, 23 which basically is the area north of Central Street, 24 up to Walnut, Maple Street area, so basically that Arlington Reporting Company
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55 1 whole stretch of property there which is just north of 2 Central Street and west of the 70 depression. 3 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Sure. 4 STEVEN CAMARA: And I did raise the 5 issue in ­­ and I did bring it back to my neighborhood 6 association. And Jim Bartley is here as are others 7 from the Neighborhood Association. And I know that 8 Tom Abner and Milton Glickman ­­ TOM ABNER: They already have. 9 STEVEN CAMARA: They’ve already heard 10 11 12 from you. So, we have voted unanimously to 13 support the construction of a pedestrian way. And 14 we’re offering two suggestions, one at the end of Pine 15 Street, which would mean that no ramps would be needed 16 out of the east side of the area because it would 17 close nicely, and on the west side of 79 there’s 18 plenty of space to bring a ramp down into the park. 19 Also, interestingly, historically, and I hope Mr. 20 Abner shared this with you, but there was a footpath 21 over the railroad track historically. And I know one 22 of the issues has been the history of the area. 23 24 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Mm hum. STEVEN CAMARA: At the end of Walnut Arlington Reporting Company
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56 1 Street, which is just a couple of streets north of 2 Pine Street, the foundation, I understand, still 3 exists for that footpath. And we believe that not 4 one, but two footbridges, would accommodate this, the 5 predominant neighborhood, that would utilize that 6 park. We have no park in our neighborhood. This, in 7 essence, is this neighborhood’s park. But we can’t 8 get to it very easily. MODERATOR O’DOWD: Sure. 9 10 STEVEN CAMARA: And, certainly if 11 you’re a small child on a tricycle, or if you’re 12 someone in a wheelchair, getting through that one 13 intersection ­­ and I think that the project that 14 you’ve done and we’ve done together is excellent. And 15 I’m fully endorsing the project to the point of where 16 it goes. 17 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Okay. 18 STEVEN CAMARA: But the outstanding 19 issue is the pedestrian issue from the Lower Highlands 20 Historic Downtown Neighborhood into Heritage State 21 Park. And we think that it’s not ­­ it would not be a 22 cost prohibitive project and we want a serious look at 23 that project. 24 Finally, I just came from another Arlington Reporting Company
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57 1 meeting at City Hall where approval was given to move 2 forward on occupying 64 Durfee Street, which is at the 3 corner of Durfee and Elm Street near the ­­ actually 4 Durfee and Bank Street. It takes the whole block so 5 it does go all the way down ­­ to develop it as a 6 centerpiece of the connection between the waterfront 7 and the downtown into an arts occupied space for 8 artists’ live­work­sell space as well as personal 9 development. 10 So, we speak of, in a PowerPoint 11 presentation, that our neighborhood, among other 12 groups sponsored, of the importance of on a summer 13 night going to the cultural ­­ going to this new 14 center, walking to Heritage State Park, or to the 15 Marine Museum, or to the Narrows Center for the Arts, 16 or coming up to North Main Street to enjoy the 17 restaurants and the night spots that are there. And 18 so all of that would create the kind of pedestrian way 19 and certainly wheelchair accessible way and bicycle 20 accessible way to advance the goal of connecting the 21 downtown to the waterfront. 22 I think the concentration ­­ and it’s 23 clear by looking at this ­­ of what’s happening south 24 of 195, that’s where the primary focus has been. And Arlington Reporting Company
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58 1 there’s been some significant improvements in creating 2 connections for pedestrians to get to that section of 3 the waterfront. I want to see some equal attention to 4 getting pedestrians from the north side of Central 5 Street to the waterfront. And we believe Pine Street 6 and Walnut Street are two places to go. 7 The other thing that the Neighborhood 8 Association unanimously endorsed was taking a look at 9 probably not shutting off Harbor Street. We think 10 that that would be detrimental. It would pour all the 11 traffic onto Durfee Street ­­ and there’s already a 12 major backup from Durfee Street and Central Street. 13 And many people use the Pine Street, Harbor Street 14 connection in order to get to points south and north. 15 We also think that it would create a 16 blighted area. It’s already a difficult area now. 17 People throw furniture or mattresses over the wall. 18 To make that a dead­end street from Pine, basically 19 adjacent to the west side of Harbor Terrace, formerly 20 Harbor Terrace, now Heritage Heights, would be 21 inviting a problem of dumping of trash. And that 22 really would be an eyesore to Heritage State Park and 23 Davol Street to have that kind of situation. So, we 24 think that Harbor Street ought to be kept open. Arlington Reporting Company
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59 MODERATOR O’DOWD: That sentiment was
1 2 expressed earlier by one of your neighbors. And I
3 think a good suggestion was made is can we do that by
4 providing one­way access in off of Central Street.
5 Obviously, we’re always going to maintain pedestrian,
6 handicap access to and from Heritage Heights out onto
7 Central Street and down towards the waterfront area,
8 but, also, recommendations are actually allow traffic
9 coming in onto Central Street into Harbor Terrace,
10 essentially creating a one­way loop. So, I think 11 that’s a good suggestion and we’ll look into that 12 after tonight’s meeting. 13 Go ahead. 14 ALAN MACOMBER: Alan Macomber. I’m a 15 local business owner on Anawan Street. When I look at this slide, in my mind, 16 17 blue is good. It’s kind of ­­ MODERATOR O’DOWD: You should be 18 19 smiling. You’ve done a lot to get to this point, 20 Alan. 21 ALAN MACOMBER: And really between 22 Anawan Street and Canal Street that should really be 23 light blue. You know, yellow is sort of a misnomer 24 when you look at the other slide of what the current Arlington Reporting Company
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60 1 situation is. 2 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Good point. Yeah. 3 ALAN MACOMBER: So, if you take this 4 preferred alternative and you go back to the existing 5 alternative ­­ and I think Rod, you can show that, how 6 it looks in the yellow area. What is the position of 7 the Federal Highway Administration in such a 8 significant change because, obviously, the residents 9 of Fall River, the City officials, state and all the 10 commissions, everyone loves this ­­ 11 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Right. 12 ALAN MACOMBER: ­­ but it’s a 13 significant departure from what we have and it changes 14 the Federal Highway System significantly. So, I 15 suspect that that’s going to be important as we go 16 into the ENF. 17 MODERATOR O’DOWD: That’s one of the 18 challenges that we faced all along, Alan. Alan’s been 19 a member of our task force since it was initiated. 20 And I’m happy to report that Federal Highway’s been 21 working with us closely. Every two weeks now we’re 22 meeting with the Federal Highway’s engineering staff, 23 bridge staff, traffic staff, and their environmental 24 group to discuss this project. So, never has a Arlington Reporting Company
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61 1 project gotten so much importance from a Federal 2 Highway perspective that they’re meeting with us to go 3 over ­­ to get through all these obstacles that we 4 face: safety, mobility, accessibility between the 5 interstate, which is you have to maintain interstate 6 access mobility at all times to and from the state 7 highway and to and from for the locals and the 8 waterfront and the potential for making it more 9 accessible and more aesthetically pleasing. And if in 10 doing so it creates an opportunity for development 11 potential and economic improvements that’s great. 12 So, I’m happy to say that we’ve been 13 working and Federal Highway realizes those important 14 items and those goals that we’re striving to achieve 15 here. And they share them with us. 16 So, we wouldn’t be presenting something 17 to you tonight if there wasn’t confidence on DOT’s 18 part that Federal Highway is supporting the actions 19 that we’re taking right now. So, that’s ­­ and that 20 needs to happen in order for the Environmental 21 Assessment to progress forward, to get out onto the 22 streets so that we can get the public feedback on it. 23 24 ALAN MACOMBER: Do you expect to get approval to move ahead with the preferred alternative Arlington Reporting Company
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62 1 from the Federal Highway Administration to prepare the 2 ENF? MODERATOR O’DOWD: I totally expect to 3 4 get an approval from Federal Highway Administration 5 before we are able to publish the Environmental 6 Assessment. 7 ALAN MACOMBER: And that’s June 2011? 8 MODERATOR O’DOWD: That’s as quickly as 9 we possibly can. There’s nothing that hasn’t been 10 accelerated about this project since 2009. So, yeah, 11 we’re moving it as fast as we possibly can. But, in 12 doing so, we can’t skip procedural steps that have to 13 be taken in developing those documents. I’m going to go to the back of the 14 15 room. Go ahead, sir. KRIS BARTLEY: Hi. My name is Kris 16 17 18 Bartley. This seems to be a pretty elaborate 19 project, obviously. Do you have a plan in terms of 20 the construction phase to limit the amount of overflow 21 equipment and materials in the surrounding areas? 22 MODERATOR O’DOWD: I was really hoping 23 somebody wouldn’t ask questions about construction 24 scheduling and management. That is going to be very Arlington Reporting Company
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63 1 2 difficult We’re working with our construction 3 group at District 5 in Taunton. Many of the 4 construction guys have had ­­ and women, pardon me ­­ 5 have had a lot of experience on this particular 6 location. It’s not easy. There are so many different 7 movements that have to be maintained. So, certainly, 8 there are going to be number of restrictions that are 9 in place during the construction period. It certainly 10 can’t be done without a lot of signage and advance 11 notification to abutters, to businesses. We’ve asked 12 that the City officials designate a specific 13 coordinator for this project so that we have a liaison 14 that we, our construction group, can communicate 15 directly with them and assist us in getting that 16 information out. 17 So, we’re still toying with the whole 18 traffic management plan. It’s got to be a sequential. 19 We’re trying to find ways where we can minimize the 20 amount of impact for traffic moving to and from the 21 interstate and the state highway, and also to the 22 downtown area, but at the same time accelerate the 23 whole sequence of the project. 24 So, I’d be lying if I said there’s not Arlington Reporting Company
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64 1 going to be a lot of hardships felt that, you know, 2 have to be endured over the four­year period of 3 construction. And I am asking for cooperation of 4 everybody involved and patience. We commit to providing you with all the 5 6 information and working with you as best we can, but 7 we’re really going to be depending upon the patience 8 of the citizens and the City, not only the City of 9 Fall River, but also, you know, Somerset, Swansea, and 10 anybody that may be transiting through the City of 11 Fall River. So, it’s going to be tough, but we feel 12 13 confident that working with our District 6 14 construction staff ­­ excuse me, District 5 15 construction staff ­­ that we’ll be able to find one 16 that sort of addresses and minimizes that amount of 17 impact. 18 KRIS BARTLEY: Well, my main concern 19 would be actually not ­­ well, obviously, traffic 20 patterns would be in coordination, but more so your 21 equipment and the removal of materials and storage of 22 those things, you know. 23 24 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Mm hum. KRIS BARTLEY: You know, we wouldn’t Arlington Reporting Company
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65 1 want to actually ruin more of what the surrounding 2 area would look like, causing more time on the 3 project. MODERATOR O’DOWD: Correct. And to the 4 5 extent that we can within the layout or within the 6 real estate DOT currently owns, that’s ultimately 7 where we strive to find staging areas and laydown 8 areas for the contracting team. In all likelihood, it 9 will require some staging areas outside of our layout, 10 at which point we usually direct our contractor. They 11 have to work out deals or agreements with land owners, 12 property owners for that. But, consistent with the 13 development of the traffic management plan that we 14 have to approve and accept that’s submitted to us by 15 the design­build team, they also have to be able to 16 show us, okay, where is your staging area, where is 17 your laydown area, what is your route going to be for 18 bringing heavy equipment to and from the site, and how 19 are you addressing that in the traffic management 20 plan. 21 So, it’s sort of twofold. We have to 22 look at how the contractor is going to develop it and 23 what are the impacts to motor vehicle access, 24 pedestrian access, interstate access, but also what is Arlington Reporting Company
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66 1 the contractor doing with his own equipment to 2 minimize that as well. So, it’s ­­ we need to get 3 through this. There will be some scenarios in the 4 environmental documents that address the traffic 5 management and the staging areas, laydown areas. But 6 this has been a hurdle to get to this point, to find 7 something that everybody is agreeable to. General 8 consensus says that it’s an at­grade alternative. And 9 now that we’ve gotten to this point, now we’re going 10 to start working out some of the complexities 11 associated with building it. 12 Yes, sir? 13 BRIAN KIRK: Brian Kirk, Fall River. 14 I like the fact that you dropped it 15 down, but I have a major problem with basically 16 getting from Davol Street southbound onto the bridge. 17 You have basically two left­hand turn lanes, which I’m 18 guessing is 10 cars. Having ­­ trying to get home, 19 because I live up the other end of Broadway, the 20 traffic just at the stop signs to get on the bridge 21 backs up all through ­­ all the way back to what you 22 have on this thing is called Marina. And it basically 23 backs up that far. 24 By having left turn lanes, you’re ­­ Arlington Reporting Company
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67 1 basically, the same thing is happening on the south 2 side of the bridge. You’re going to bring all the 3 traffic to a dead stop for a cycle of lights. You’re 4 going to have maybe 10 cars in the left­hand turn 5 lane. And if the traffic backs up, which I expect it 6 to having seen it enough times, right now when it 7 backs up it doesn’t impede on any traffic going 8 through. Now, with it down at ground level, you will 9 have the Anawan Street intersection could conceivably 10 be blocked, and the Central Street intersection could 11 conceivably blocked. 12 And I’ll tell you what I said at the 13 last meeting, what I suggested is instead of having 14 cars take a left­hand turn, which would cause, as I 15 said, a traffic pattern problem, if they come up on 16 the right basin where the ramp coming off the highway 17 is now, which is going to have to be eliminated, if 18 you have an up­ramp over there, it would come up to 19 about the height of the Water Street overpass and 20 swing over Davol Street. And, interestingly, I can 21 see you have a lot of green. There’s like a green 22 area there that you could align. Your engineers could 23 align it up and still feed into and/or merge with the 24 existing two lanes that you have coming from Arlington Reporting Company
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68 1 northbound Davol Street. And, by doing that, you have 2 like one lane because, if my prediction is right, you 3 have basically two lanes going all the way back up. 4 If, in fact, I’m right and it backs up, you have the 5 whole left­hand lane like it is now will be tied up 6 with people who want to get on the bridge, and there 7 will be only one lane of traffic. And, again, if I’m 8 right, instead of people wanting to come to this area, 9 which we’ve all heard everybody talking about, if it 10 becomes a bottleneck people will avoid it. And all 11 the nice things everybody wants to do down there will 12 be stopped because people will just say it’s too much 13 trouble because every time you want to go southbound 14 you get stuck. It’s a silly left­hand turn lane to 15 put there. 16 So, rather than criticizing, I’m giving 17 you an alternative, ramp off on the right to swing 18 over the top and swing into the same thing. And it 19 would only be one ramp per se, probably one­car wide. 20 You wouldn’t have to do two lanes. And it would merge 21 in there. And, you know, it would ­­ also, because 22 you don’t have a left­hand turn lane, the traffic 23 flowing in both directions would be better because you 24 wouldn’t have to worry about the cycle pattern to go Arlington Reporting Company
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69 1 through the left­hand turn lane. So, it would cut 2 down on the congestion in the area. 3 MODERATOR O’DOWD: In one of the 4 alternatives ­­ like I said, we’ve gone through 5 numerous alternatives ­­ we did look into the 6 opportunity to create essentially it’s a loop ramp. 7 BRIAN KIRK: Yes. 8 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Which would 9 alleviate the need for the signal and would give you 10 direct access onto that ramp. It was too tight a 11 radius. The profiles don’t work. We can actually 12 pull it up. It’s in one of the alternatives 13 developed, too. 14 ROD EMERY: Yeah, but before we leave 15 this, one of the things that you’re not considering ­­ 16 and, actually, Federal Highway asked the same question 17 about the queuing and the stacking. And we ­­ we 18 looked at the ­­ I’ll just stand up so you can hear 19 me. We looked at the interaction of the signal. And 20 a lot of times you see signals that operate 21 independently. These three signals here are going to 22 be interconnected. And what we do is we look at a 23 simulation on how much of the traffic will go through 24 the three greens at the same time versus ­­ we don’t Arlington Reporting Company
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70 1 want somebody to pull up here, stop at a red light, 2 pull up here, stop at a red light, pull here, stop at 3 a red light. That gives you the congestion that 4 you’re talking about. 5 Signals are more efficient than a four­
6 way stop. That’s why we go the next generation up. 7 The bandwidth here is I think over 60 or 70 percent of 8 the time you’ll get a green here and go all the way 9 through and make the loop ramp. So, it’s a very 10 11 efficient set of interconnected signals. The loop ramp itself ­­ I can go back 12 and show you that it’s part of the ­­ it’s part of 13 this scheme. This gives you an idea of how long the 14 ramp would have to be to make the radius work. It’s a 15 long ramp. And then it would touch down on this side 16 of a ramp which would create a very unsafe pattern as 17 well. So, it’s the combination of the geometry to 18 make this work. And this is minimal. Again, we have 19 standards that Mike talked about for safety, and 20 radius, and length. And part of the reason that we 21 did some work on these ramps coming down there and 22 eliminated the ­­ started looking at the ramps, is 23 they were too steep to meet standards when we started 24 looking at them. So, we’ve done ways of Arlington Reporting Company
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71 1 2 interconnecting them. This just creates a situation that I 3 don’t think we can build. So, we actually did look at 4 that because we had the same idea you did. That’s why 5 we looked at a roundabout for it, a different way to 6 do it. It would take a three­lane roundabout to be 7 able to replace that signal. 8 9 So, I think you’re discounting the signal operation as well as the progression. And it 10 works very well. And the reason it works very well is 11 because the side street volumes are relatively small 12 compared to the through volumes. So, we give the 13 majority of the green time to Route 79. 14 BRIAN KIRK: Well, the reason I brought 15 it up is, I hear what you’re saying, but you’re 16 talking about traffic going north to south going 17 through there fast, and that wasn’t my concern. My 18 concern was people making left­hand turns. If you’ve 19 seen it like I have, trying to go home sometimes, the 20 traffic backs up to the marina and there’s a 21 tremendous amount of traffic. It will be ­­ you’ll 22 have to slow down your ­­ in order for those cars to 23 make the left­hand turn onto the bridge, however many 24 people from the north will need to do that, you’re Arlington Reporting Company
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72 1 going to have to cycle your light so it will impact on 2 the north­south flow of traffic. 3 I mean I hear what you’re saying here. 4 But I’m also pointing out to you that I believe you’re 5 going to have a real problem with left­hand turns, the 6 traffic backing up, again, as far as the marina. And 7 I wish there was another ­­ I mean I’m not a highway 8 engineer, but to say that the lights will take care of 9 the left­hand turn, I’ve seen as a driver in my 10 lifetime left­hand turns are a pain. And that’s 11 usually what causes your backup most of the time and a 12 lot of your accidents. And, if I’m right, you’ll find the 13 14 problem. If you’re right, then it won’t. But ­­ ROD EMERY: And, again, I’m not ­­ as 15 16 Mike said, I’m getting scrutinized by his department, 17 Federal Highway’s resource group, resource center. 18 Where are they located? JASON: We have one in Colorado, one in 19 20 21 Delaware. ROD EMERY: So, the Federal Highway’s 22 main resource group, which is how they do it, raise 23 the same questions, right, Jason? 24 JASON: We’re looking at the traffic Arlington Reporting Company
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73 1 numbers. And they’ll have to prove that what they’re 2 saying holds true to the model. 3 BRIAN KIRK: So you know how many cars 4 are polling on that second deck, the deck that backs 5 up to the marina. If you’ve done traffic studies, you 6 know how many cars are going through there, which 7 would be the same ones going on Davol once you drop 8 everything down. 9 JASON: We understand those issues, and 10 certain things about the signals, and, as planned 11 right now, that will be corrected. I’m not making any 12 statements about the validity of the traffic model 13 yet, but we have some of the nation’s leading experts 14 looking into it. 15 BRIAN KIRK: Okay. 16 ROD EMERY: It’s not the first time 17 I’ve done an intersection that’s had this volume of 18 traffic and heavy left turns. Right up the street on 19 195 we’ve done the same thing. So, it’s not the first 20 time I’ve designed something like this. Actually, 21 it’s been ­­ I have 40 years of experience designing. 22 And I’ve stuck to redesigning some of my intersections 23 that have worn out. 24 BRIAN KIRK: Okay. Thank you. Arlington Reporting Company
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74 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Thanks. Any other 1 2 questions? Yes, sir, in the back? DAVE DENNIS: Dave Dennis. I’m just a 3 4 concerned citizen. This is probably ­­ hopefully, 5 it’s an easy question. There’s been much talk over the years 6 7 about daylighting the Quequechan River as the 8 centerpiece of the City. And I understand currently 9 there’s an impediment down there, which would be the 10 superstructure for the viaduct, which would prohibit, 11 at some point, daylighting if the City chose to do 12 that. Obviously the funding is there. Does this 13 configuration address that? Down the road will we be 14 able to do that? MODERATOR O’DOWD: It wouldn’t preclude 15 16 17 18 19 it. DAVE DENNIS: Well, would it accommodate it? MODERATOR O’DOWD: Well, we’re 20 developing it right now to address the structural 21 deficiencies and the geometric, you know, the safety 22 and movement of vehicles. As a secondary issue, we 23 looked at it. It was brought to our attention by the 24 City officials that there was that daylighting of he Arlington Reporting Company
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75 1 Quequechan sometime in the future. But, certainly, 2 they saw this as the priority right now, addressing 3 this. And if at some point in the future that 4 opportunity arose whereby they could work something in 5 with whatever it is that we’re proposing that’s great. 6 But it wasn’t the driver. Certainly, we’re 7 recognizing it, but the driver is finding an 8 alternative that the City, DOT, Federal Highway are 9 comfortable with progressing so that it addresses the 10 structurally deficient bridge issue. And if the 11 opportunity exists in the future where the City wants 12 to aspire to daylight the Quequechan that’s great. 13 There may be an opportunity for them to do that, but 14 right now this is just addressing the interchange 15 area. 16 ROD EMERY: Like some of those early, 17 early 12 schemes I showed you in the beginning ­­ 18 DAVE DENNIS: Right. 19 ROD EMERY: ­­ eliminate a lot more of 20 the ramps to the interchanges. And that was one of 21 the reasons was to look at would there be 22 opportunities like that. And I think we very quickly 23 concluded that it took some ­­ it took a combination 24 of ramps back within the same interchange area to make Arlington Reporting Company
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76 1 the interchange work. So, that was some of the 2 emphasis behind the early interchange was to see could 3 we clean out some of that area over there. And we 4 couldn’t make it work from, you know, a much more open 5 area. So that was sort of some of our early task 6 force work. DAVE DENNIS: So, is your answer to 7 8 that if this was the model that was accepted it would 9 not accommodate daylighting the Quequechan? MODERATOR O’DOWD: It would probably be 10 11 very difficult and it may impact some of the 12 structures and walls that need to be built in order to 13 accommodate this. I’m not saying it completely 14 diminishes it or dismisses it, but certainly it would 15 be a challenge to undertake considering what we’re 16 building right now ­­ what we’re proposing to build 17 right now. 18 Any other questions? 19 ALAN MACOMBER: Alan Macomber, business 20 21 owner on Anawan Street. Is there a possibility of once the 22 preferred alternative’s approved, and the ENF is 23 filed, and the design moves into the next stage that 24 the task force could come together again to look at Arlington Reporting Company
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77 1 the construction phasing? Because I think that’s one 2 element of the project that really hasn’t been looked 3 at? 4 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Sure. It’s too 5 early. Those critical details will have to be worked 6 out. But getting to this point here ­­ recognizing 7 that all the alternatives that we looked at all face 8 the same ­­ it’s so variable on what the potential 9 impacts could be with the traffic. We feel most 10 comfortable that all of them are going to be very 11 difficult to be able to employ, but we feel that the 12 alternative that DOT is recommending right now, the 13 at­grade alternative, gives us the greatest 14 opportunity to be able to manage traffic while at the 15 same time building something. 16 So, that’s how we got to this point to 17 begin with. We never disregarded it. We always have 18 to take it into consideration. And certainly moving 19 forward with the task force and the relationships that 20 we’ve formed will be of some assistance to us. 21 ALAN MACOMBER: One of the criticisms 22 that I hear a lot of times is when construction starts 23 on one part of the highway, and then something happens 24 on the Braga Bridge, and it seems like the two Arlington Reporting Company
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78 1 projects aren’t coordinated. This being so 2 significant that whatever work needs to be done to the 3 Braga Bridge needs to be halted for four years say or 4 coordinated with the effort that’s going on here 5 because it’s going to be tough for the business 6 owners. 7 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Unfortunately, we 8 couldn’t delay the Braga repairs any longer, so that 9 had to get out. So, they’re moving as quickly as they 10 can with that so it doesn’t have major conflicts with 11 what it is that we’re proposing in 2013. 12 So, there’s a couple of years of work 13 that’s still going to be undertaken on the Braga 14 between the painting and the steel repairs. And 15 certainly in that time period where we have our 16 biggest cross, the Brightman Street Bridge, will also 17 be completed in its entirety and traffic will be up 18 and running on that again as well. 19 So, DOT has a lot of ­­ there’s a lot 20 of efforts that are going to have to take place on 21 DOT’s part in construction and coordination to get 22 everything smooth flowing. But, look at it this way, 23 Fall River has got an awful lot of work going on right 24 now. So it’s ­­ Arlington Reporting Company
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79 1 ALAN MACOMBER: No, we appreciate it. 2 MODERATOR O’DOWD: The potential here 3 for Fall River is very good. 4 Any other questions? Yes, sir? 5 DAVE JOHANSEN: Dave Johansen, resident 6 of Fall River. Are these slides available on that 7 8 website that’s showing at the end of the ­­ 9 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Today’s Wednesday. 10 Give me till say Monday and we can put them up on the 11 website. 12 13 DAVE JOHANSEN: Okay. And will traffic pattern updates, or when construction would start ­­ 14 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Oh, sure. 15 DAVE JOHANSEN: ­­ all that would be ­­ 16 MODERATOR O’DOWD: We’ll be back ­­ 17 we’ll be back with you in the public as often as it 18 needs to to keep you apprised and updated on what it 19 is that we’re moving forward with. I fully expect 20 that we’ll probably be out again when the documents 21 are released for public review and comment just to 22 answer any questions that you may have relative to 23 reading it and public comments on it. And, certainly, 24 we’re going to keep you up­to­date, and probably on a Arlington Reporting Company
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80 1 quarterly basis. 2 Yes, ma’am? 3 KATHY: Hi, Kathy (inaudible), Fall 4 5 River. You know, they say there’s no such 6 thing as a dumb question, but you may be about to hear 7 it. But I’ve got to ask it. Is there any way that 8 the access to the Interstate 195 could be totally 9 abandoned in that area ­­ just removing everything and 10 allowing access to be via 24 and perhaps further up 11 into Somerset or Swansea? 12 MODERATOR O’DOWD: The short answer on 13 that is no. From a construction standpoint there’s 14 going to be times when we’re going to have to shut 15 down certain ramps coming to and from Interstate 195, 16 but at no point in time can we completely shut down 17 the operations of 195. 18 KATHY: Is that a function of Federal 19 Highway requirements that there has to be access at 20 that junction? 21 MODERATOR O’DOWD: That’s MassDOT’s 22 stretch. We have to maintain movements on the 23 interstate at all times. Certainly Federal Highway 24 echoes that same concern, but DOT would never consider Arlington Reporting Company
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81 1 2 3 doing something like that either. Thank you for your comment. And it’s not a dumb question. 4 Any other ­­ yes, Mike? 5 COUNCILOR MICHAEL LUND: Thank you. 6 Consistently, Fall River, 7 unfortunately, has a history of double­digit 8 unemployment. And I’ve heard tonight about safety and 9 traffic patterns. Fall River’s greatest obstacle is 10 economic development and job creation. 11 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Mm hum. 12 COUNCILOR MICHAEL LUND: And I think 13 it’s absolutely critical that DOT reaches out to the 14 businesses that either directly abut or are an abutter 15 to an abutter, and almost have their own group. 16 Mr. Karam spoke eloquently tonight. 17 We’re trying to attract higher­end jobs. He has a few 18 properties that have it. There are others right in 19 the vicinity of Milliken Boulevard. There is 20 discussion right nearby in the Lower Central area. 21 Those individuals are vested to bringing jobs here. 22 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Sure. Mm hum. 23 COUNCILOR MICHAEL LUND: They have to 24 be made part of the process. And I think their needs Arlington Reporting Company
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82 1 and concerns are even more elevated than that of the 2 general public, especially in light of the fact that 3 we do have such high unemployment. We’re dying to 4 bring in new jobs, never mind making it more difficult 5 on those that are here. 6 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Yes. 7 COUNCILOR MICHAEL LUND: And I think 8 that very same group is going to be the same group 9 that you need to work with very closely during the 10 construction phase of this. 11 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Yes. 12 COUNCILOR MICHAEL LUND: And I would 13 ask that within your organization maybe you almost 14 create a subcommittee of just those individuals 15 because they are the ones creating the employment. 16 MODERATOR O’DOWD: Sure. And I don’t 17 want anybody to walk away from this tonight thinking 18 that DOT minimizes or disregards the potential for 19 employment. If you look at the legislation that the 20 Accelerated Bridge Program was created under, one of 21 the goals of it was to stimulate job growth, and 22 certainly through the construction and the design that 23 was appropriated with the $3 billion. 24 So, in this area here alone between the Arlington Reporting Company
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83 1 projects that are going on at Brightman Street, the 2 project at Exit 8­and­a­half on 24, the project that’s 3 been undertaken here on the Braga, and what we’re here 4 proposing to you tonight, there’s significant job 5 creation as a result of the construction. And your 6 sentiments have been clearly expressed to us with the 7 task force that we convened early in 2010 where a lot 8 of business members of the community are represented 9 on that board. And certainly that’s all been 10 expressed to us and we don’t overlook it. We’ve been 11 looking at how can we achieve that while, at the same 12 time, achieve what DOT’s charge is, and that is to get 13 rid of structurally deficient bridges, maintain the 14 access, improve the access as much as we possibly can, 15 so that we don’t preclude the opportunity for the City 16 to expand its job creation and build opportunities. 17 COUNCILOR MICHAEL LUND: I understand 18 $170 million of investment is certainly going to bring 19 job creation. That job creation will be on a short­
20 term basis. If you’re successful in your target date, 21 those jobs will be gone in 2016. And, in the 22 meantime, if this isn’t done carefully with those 23 surrounding businesses, we’re not going to have job 24 preservation. And we need this project, for $170 Arlington Reporting Company
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84 1 million when it’s all completed, should have the 2 ability to create those jobs beyond 2016 so properties 3 that abut this can grow and bring in more jobs. And I 4 think that it’s critical to bring in the people that 5 are surrounding that area. And I’d ask you to give 6 that careful consideration. 7 MODERATOR O’DOWD: The fact that you’re 8 here tonight raising it to us, it’s going to go back 9 to our Chief Engineer, and our Administrator, and our 10 Secretary. And, certainly, I’ll be able to 11 communicate that back to them as well. But I do ask 12 you, please to follow up with written communication to 13 our Chief Engineer, directing it to the Accelerated 14 Bridge Program, so that all of your comments we can, 15 you know, to the extent practicable, input them into 16 the design and how we move forward with our 17 alternatives and the Environmental Assessment. 18 So, I appreciate those comments. 19 Is there anybody else here tonight? 20 Questions? Comments? Criticisms? 21 (No response.) 22 MODERATOR O’DOWD: I want to thank you 23 all for coming out. We will be back again in the near 24 future to give you up­to­date information. But thank Arlington Reporting Company
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85 1 you very much for the auditorium and your presence 2 here tonight. (Whereupon, the proceedings were 3 4 concluded.) 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // 11 // 12 // 13 // 14 // 15 // 16 // 17 // 18 // 19 // 20 // 21 // 22 // 23 // 24 //
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86 C E R T I F I C A T E
I, Judith A. Luciano, do hereby certify that the foregoing record is a true and accurate transcription of the proceedings in the above­
captioned matter to the best of my skill and ability. _______________________ Judith A. Luciano ** ALL NAMES NOT PROVIDED WERE SPELLED PHONETICALLY TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY Arlington Reporting Company
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