ROUTE 79/DAVOL STREET CORRIDOR STUDY
Summary of Working Group meeting
September 19, 2012, 5:00-6:15 p.m.
Boys & Girls Club of Fall River
803 Bedford Street
Fall River, MA
Ethan Britland, MassDOT Project Manager, welcomed attendees to the first meeting of the
Working Group (WG) for the Route 79/Davol Street Corridor Study. He said the WG was
formed to provide input to the team on the study process and for members to represent their
respective organization with two-way communication.
Ethan stressed the nature of the study is a “conceptual study” and “not a project.” Ethan
explained that no engineering work would be done and that the study’s main purpose was to
identify improvement alternatives in the corridor in an open and collaborative process and to
build public support for them. While the specific area the study will concentrate on is along
Route 79/Davol Street between Cedar Street and Brightman Street, the project team will
consider this corridor within the context of regional transportation impacts on Routes 6 and 24
and three I-195 interchanges (two interchanges with Route 24 and the Plymouth Avenue
interchange).
The study team developed several preliminary goals and objectives and asked for feedback
from the WG. The study’s draft goals are:
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Identify opportunities to improve mobility, connectivity, and safety along and across the
Route 79 and Davol Street corridor study area
Promote and foster regional and local economic development potential
Improve the quality of life for residents
Draft study objectives identified to meet study goals are:
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Provide better multimodal connectivity between downtown Fall River and its waterfront
Enhance multimodal access to the future South Coast Rail
Balance local and regional mobility
Improve and enhance safety conditions
Increase opportunities for economic development and land use feasibility
Minimize potential impacts to the environment and community
The study team has clustered about a dozen evaluation criteria within six topic areas: mobility,
safety, health and environmental effects, land use and economic development, community
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effects and cost, with 40 individual measures to quantify how well each alternative meets the
project’s goals and objectives.
An important element of the study will be public engagement. A Working Group comprised of
local officials and community members has been formed to provide input to the project team
and to provide communication links with the Fall River community. In addition there will be
public meetings, newsletters and a project website has been launched,
www.mass.gov/massdot/route79.
Comments/Questions
WG members asked questions and provided comment throughout the meeting and are shown
in italics and are followed by responses from the project team.
Is it too late to expand the north boundary of the focus area to the Veterans Memorial Bridge as
we’d like to see if a bike path can be created between Wellington Street and Bi-centennial Park?
The bike path is already on our radar screen and will be evaluated in our study.
Will the criteria for LID (Low Impact Development) limit development?
It shouldn’t. These criteria apply mostly to best management practices for stormwater.
Is there any way for this study to collapse its schedule to align better with the spaghetti ramps
project?
This project is in the conceptual stage and is not tied to a construction project so it will not be
on the same schedule. The typical timeline for a conceptual study is 12-18 months. We will look
at opportunities to compress the schedule, moving as quickly as we can, but we will need to
allow for adequate public process.
Could you do a critical time line for this study and overlay it with the spaghetti ramps project?
The accelerated bridge project will cause tremendous disruption. If construction of
improvements in the Route 79/Davol Street corridor can’t occur until 2019 or later, it will
prolong disruption.
The spaghetti ramps project is a design/build project with an accelerated schedule, expected to
start in early 2013. MassDOT’s standard project development – from planning, environmental
review, design, and permitting – normally takes 5-7 years. We will do the timeline and
compress our study as much as possible.
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Have you looked at the regional impact this areas has across the river in Somerset where the
Chief of Police has asked SRPEDD to do a traffic study related to impacts from the Brightman
Street Bridge/Route 6?
No, we have not extended the study area over the river but perhaps we can address traffic
issues in a qualitative rather than quantitative way.
What’s the southern line of the study and how can residents and the downtown connect better
to the waterfront? Right now pedestrian access is limited to the Central Street and Presidential
Avenue intersections. Both are difficult to cross, especially with a stroller. I’d like to see the study
area extend beyond Cedar Street to Central Street. The neighborhood would like to see 1-2
bike/ped friendly overpasses like India Point in Providence.
The area south of Cedar Street is being addressed by the I-195/Route 79 accelerated bridge
project. This study will address connectivity issues between Brightman Street and Cedar Street.
In additions to roads, there is still a rail line to factor in as we develop alternatives to address
connectivity.
The neighborhood believes opportunities are needed for a pedestrian bridge and are pursuing
rail project funds with Jean Fox.
Peter McCarthy, Executive Director, was thanked for providing a comfortable meeting room for
the WG. The meeting adjourned at 6:15
In attendance:
Richard Brown, Town Administrator, Freetown
Brian Pearson, Fall River Bicycle Committee
Erik Rousseau, Southeastern Regional Transit Authority
Pedro Amaral, Office of State Senator Michael Rodriques
Bill Travers, MassDOT District 5 Project Development
Elizabeth Dennehy, City of Fall River Planning Department
Pamela Haznar, MassDOT District 5
Lisa Copeland, Fall River Housing Joint Tenants Council
Peter McCarthy, Boys & Girls Club of Fall River
Michael Miozza, Fall River City Councilor
Michael Rodriques, State Senator
Alfred Lima, Green Futures and Save Our Neighborhoods
Joseph Camara, Fall River City Councilor
Robin Hodkinson, Fall River resident
Byron Holmes, Fall River City Engineer
Steven Camara, Lower Highlands/Highlands Neighborhood Associations
Paul Mission, Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District
Jim Hoyle, Federal Highway Administration
Patrick Norton, Office of Congressman James McGovern
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Anthony Veilleux, Office of State Representative Paul Schmid
Jean Fox, MassDOT (South Coast Rail)
Ken Fiola, Fall River Office of Economic Development
David Sullivan, State Representative
Paul Schmid, State Representative
Project Team
Ethan Britland, MassDOT Project Manager
Joe Cahill, TranSystems, Consultant Project Manager
Paul Nelson, MassDOT
Lenny Velichansky, TranSystems
Margaret Collins, Cambridge Economics
Jill Barrett, Fitzgerald & Halliday, Inc.
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