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Select Board Hears Final Design Plans For Waterfield Road, Church Street Intersection™

WINCHESTER - Following a 2018 motor vehicle accident on Waterfield Road that claimed the life of a beloved, elderly Winchester resident, the Select Board immediately went about making some short-term changes to the intersection of Church Street and Waterfield Road. Meanwhile, the town hired Toole Design Group to map out longer-term solutions to, as Select Board Chair Susan Verdicchio noted, improve walkability and drivability. She noted the short-term enhancements the town completed in July of 2019. By October of that year, Toole created a design that pulled the curbs out to slow down traffic and make the intersection safer. Today, Fitzgerald showed the Select Board the final design. She outlined some challenges that include drainage and grading. She mentioned Waterfield Road sits quite high when compared to Church Street which makes improving the corner tricky. Fitzgerald said Toole made the ramps ADA compliant (and didn’t need a variance to do so, something Town Engineer Beth Rudolph called “very good news”). The final design shows curb extensions at all three corners, a regrading of a portion of Waterfield Road, replacing brick in the area to match, new planting strips, adding bike lanes on Church Street, adding curb ramps on Dix Street, roadway striping, drainage, and tree replacement. She stated the changes allow movement for box trucks, fire trucks and buses. Rudolph added the sidewalks are expanding to almost double the size at the corner of Waterfield Road and Church Street. The one downside concerns the increased cost as compared to estimates from 2019. As usual, the longer something takes, the more expensive it becomes and this project is no exception. Reasons for the increase include grading and drainage and inflated construction costs. Fitzgerald said construction costs keep rising monthly. When asked if the project took snow and ice removal into consideration, Fitzgerald said she spoke with DPW Director Jay Gill and advised him not to pile snow near the crosswalk. Gill said the plan would make the area safer and less slippery in the winter. “This is a very tough intersection to redesign,” Select Board member Michael Bettencourt said, adding he appreciates the widening of the sidewalk and curb to shrink the crosswalk on Waterfield Road. He went on to applaud the design, saying it was necessary because the short-term solutions weren’t enough. He also called the intersection the worst for pedestrian, vehicle and bike traffic. Since it was a public hearing, residents Sally Dale and arc church design her husband Dennis mentioned some issues they saw with the design. Dennis said the concrete matching the brick is “jarring.” He also questioned the need for a bench at the corner of Waterfield Road and Church Street, noting it wasn’t a park and seating wasn’t necessary. Fitzgerald called the bench “a sit down and have a cup of coffee type thing,” as there are coffee shops in the area. Traffic and Transportation Advisory Committee (TTAC) co-Chair Ben Keeler thanked Fitzgerald for accommodating multi-modes of transportation into the plan, especially bikes through the bike lanes. Another member of TTAC, Roger Wilson, asked about the turning radius from Church Street onto Waterfield Road (making a right turn) and if it accommodates trucks without forcing them into the other lane. Fitzgerald admitted there would be a “tiny bit” of encroachment.