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Engineers recommend keeping painted intersection layout and lowering speeds after Nantascet seawall work; residents press for guardrails
Summary
After completion of seawall construction, consultants recommended maintaining the painted island configuration at Beacon/Point Allerton, preserving two‑way traffic on some segments and reducing speed limits (including a 20 mph recommendation along the seawall). Residents and board members raised safety concerns about the lack of guardrails and sight lines for buses; the Select Board approved the recommended pattern.
Town engineers and the waterways project manager presented the final traffic findings for the Nantascet Avenue seawall project and recommended a set of post-construction traffic controls designed to preserve vehicle and pedestrian safety while keeping the new road design in place.
Kevin Mooney, the town’s waterways project manager, told the Select Board the seawall project “is coming to a close by the end of June,” and that intersection work at Point Allerton would begin around July 6 and should be finished by the end of August. GEI Consultants summarized traffic-studies showing A/B levels of service for the road and the Beacon/Point Allerton intersection under multiple alternatives. Consultant Kevin Bian said the recommended configuration keeps the current painted island and the revised intersection geometry and preserves two‑way traffic on portions of Nantascet between Beacon Road and Point Allerton, while reducing speeds in constrained areas.
Key recommendations the board reviewed included: maintaining the painted intersection configuration (the painted island) at Beacon Road; maintaining two-way traffic on selected segments where appropriate; and posting lower speed limits in constrained segments — the presenters recommended 20 mph along the seawall one‑way portion, and 25 mph in the intersection approaches.
Several residents and board members pressed engineers on safety features they said remain unresolved. “The painted islands mean nothing — people drive over them constantly,” said Marie Wentling, a resident. Other speakers described school-bus turning difficulties, the awkward location of a telephone pole that limits sight lines and the absence of a guardrail along parts of the raised roadway. Engineers responded that the painted island is the least invasive option that could be funded within the project budget and that more substantial changes (guardrails, granite curbing, or a full intersection regrade) would require substantially more work and funding.
The board approved the consultants’ recommended traffic-control changes and speed postings for the post‑construction phase, while several members said they wanted continued monitoring of crash and noise impacts and that more substantial design changes should be revisited if land redevelopment or future funding becomes available.
