Traffic surge on Rte. 128 predicted

More options are needed, group says

June 30, 2011|By Scott Van Voorhis, Globe Correspondent

This report raises a lot of questions and throws some ideas out there, said…

A potential traffic meltdown looms on a key stretch of Route 128 west of Boston unless steps are taken to get more commuters out of their cars and onto trains and buses, a new report warns.

The Metropolitan Area Planning Council projects a 77 percent increase in traffic over the next decade or two along the highway from the intersection with Route 3 to the Massachusetts Turnpike.

To make way for the surge in traffic as new development and new jobs are created along the corridor, state and local officials need to look at a mix of short-term and long-term solutions, according to the Planning Council.

The suggestions include coordinating the schedules of private shuttle buses, building a regional multimodal transportation center along Route 128, and ferrying workers from commuter rail stops to office parks along the highway.

“This area certainly has a lot of growth potential, but the question is, how can we have that economic development without completely strangling the corridor with traffic congestion?’’ said Eric Bourassa, transportation manager at the council.

All told, Route 128’s central corridor could see traffic swell by 150,000 cars and trucks per day, depending on how quickly the area is developed. That’s on top of the current 200,000 vehicles that already use the highway each day, a number that is considered well above capacity, according to the council.

Driving the increase is an expected surge in jobs and office construction along the 12.6-mile stretch of highway. Roughly 47 new development projects have either been recently completed, are in construction, or are in planning along Route 128’s central corridor.

The vast majority of the projected increase in traffic — 86 percent — is linked to new development projects in Waltham and Burlington, the report finds.

“There are lots of opportunities for economic development in the corridor, but in order to be able to achieve those, we need to do something about transit,’’ said Jeanne Krieger, a former Lexington selectwoman who chairs the 128 Central Corridor Coalition.

The report highlights a series of recommendations to cope with the influx by the coalition, a working group made up of elected officials from Burlington, Lexington, Lincoln, Waltham, and Weston, as well as other corridor business groups, such as the 128 Business Council and the 128 Corporate Alliance.

The proposals, made in the spirit of starting discussion, mix ideas that could be implemented in the next few years with others that could take a decade or more.

“This report raises a lot of questions and throws some ideas out there,’’ Bourassa said.

The proposal for a transportation hub, tentatively slated for Weston or Waltham, is the most ambitious proposal, Bourassa said.