Traffic and safety concerns shape site options for Westford school consolidation, consultants say

Traffic and safety assessments at a Westford Public Schools community forum highlighted operational limits that will shape which sites can accommodate different consolidation scenarios for the Robinson School.

Rebecca Brown, the project traffic consultant, described the six evaluation categories used for each candidate site: off-site infrastructure, walkability, on-site safety/conflict points, busing efficiency, neighborhood impacts (spillover queuing) and parking. "We really look at everything traffic related for all three of the subject sites," Brown said, explaining the team’s counts and speed-data collection and their focus on parent, bus and staff trip generation.

Robinson’s on-site layout presents multiple overlapping flows that create conflict points. Brown said the site has separate bus, parent and preK flows plus accessible-van access; those flows overlap in the parking and unloading area, creating afternoon congestion and unsafe pedestrian crossings. "There are a lot of conflict points right now on the Robinson school site," Brown said, noting parents parked irregularly and queues sometimes backed into the parking area and toward the nearby Robinson Road/Conquered Road intersection, which can cause gridlock during dismissal.

Abbott, by contrast, currently operates with a separate bus loop that allows single-stacking and generally quick clearance times; consultants noted Abbott has ample parking. Still, Abbott needs better crosswalk delineation, accessible routing from parking to school entrances and potential sidewalk upgrades on Fiser Way. Importantly, Abbott’s on-site wastewater plant lacks excess capacity, so adding students there would require additional wastewater treatment capacity and related expense.

Stony Brook Recreational Fields was described as a "blank slate" with room to accommodate larger enrollments, but consultants warned it will require pedestrian crossing installations or new sidewalks, attention to sightlines and possibly safety upgrades identified in a prior road-safety audit for the Groten/Graten Road corridor (the team noted a 2021 bicycle fatality in that corridor).

Brown emphasized a practical constraint: some off-site improvements (turning lanes, signals, sidewalks) can be accomplished and may be MSBA-eligible if tied to the school site, but other needed corridor upgrades may be community-level work that MSBA will not fully reimburse. "Anything can be achieved if you have enough money," she said, adding that the team ranks sites by what is achievable with minor versus major modifications.

The traffic team will continue targeted counts and field observations and will produce queuing and bus-routing models for each enrollment option; those models will inform potential schedule staggering, multi-door pickup designs and infrastructure priorities the district must weigh ahead of schematic design and the expected town vote.