A $353 million revamp of Route 128 that is adding lanes and replacing bridges may soon be headed to a town near you.
The eight-year-old push to add a fourth lane to a key stretch of 128 has steadily wound its way north from Randolph and is poised to move into Needham as it enters its final lap.
Still, whether all this flurry of work will actually improve traffic flow on 128 or simply be a stopgap measure is a matter of debate among authorities.
State transportation officials contend that the work, although needed to boost safety, will also help keep cars and trucks moving along at key interchanges and choke points.
But Eric Bourassa, transportation manager of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, worries that such improvements may be short-lived.
“When you add a lane, you have an improvement, but you end up encouraging more use,’’ he noted.
A federal mandate aimed at barring the use of breakdown lanes for regular traffic helped spur the effort to put in a fourth lane, said Sara Lavoie, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation.
A new fourth lane should be ready to use on 128 between Route 24 in Randolph and Route 109 at the Dedham-Westwood line by next fall. The widening project is already complete between University Avenue and 128’s Interstate 95/I-93 interchange, and also between routes 1 and 109, Lavoie said.
In addition, federal money has come through to add a fifth lane between Route 138 and the I-95/93 interchange to help ease bottlenecks there, she said.
Meanwhile, work has begun on extending the fourth lane to the north into Needham, with plans to eventually roll it out all the way up to the highway’s interchange with Route 9 in Wellesley.
However, the next phase of the project will not be complete until 2015, with plans to replace a number of bridges along the highway, including over 109, the Charles River, Route 135, and Great Plain Avenue, according to Lavoie.
Other bridge work planned for the Needham-Wellesley stretch of the highway is still being designed.
Also included in the final phase is a new interchange at Kendrick Street in Needham.
The new ramp system and bridge will provide direct highway access to the New England/Needham Business Center on Kendrick Street, and to Wells Office Park in Newton, on what becomes Nahanton Street, Lavoie said.
Needham officials are banking on the new highway connection to boost business at the New England/Needham Business Center, which has been struggling to fill empty office space.
Special Town Meeting in Needham recently approved new zoning rules that will allow for taller buildings and greater density at the office park.
“For it to be really successful, it really needs to have its own offramp,’’ said Devra Bailin, Needham’s economic development director.
