By Adam Swift
During last week’s city council meeting, Ward 5 Councillor Angela Guarino-Sawaya introduced a motion aimed at creating a coordinated approach to mitigate the impact of overlapping construction projects in Revere. Guarino-Sawaya pointed to the myriad of ongoing construction projects in the city the previous week that created traffic gridlock in Ward 5, the city, and beyond. The motion requests that the mayor, in coordination with MassDOT, DCR, and all other relevant state and regional agencies, establish a coordinated public process for construction projects that impact Revere. According to the councillor, this process should include a centralized public forum (both online and in-person) where residents can access clear, up-to-date information on ongoing and upcoming projects, timelines, and traffic impacts, as well as regular community meetings scheduled in advance of major projects, with a particular focus on impacts to school bus routes, commuter travel, and emergency response corridors.
The motion also called for advance notification requirements for both city and state projects to ensure that residents are informed ahead of time through multiple channels, and traffic mitigation and coordination plans jointly developed by the city and state, including detours, signage, and scheduling adjustments to limit overlapping disruptions in the same neighborhood or corridor. “The impact on our residents of overlapping construction projects has been extraordinary over this past week,” said Guarino-Sawaya. “With the General Edwards bridge work, North Shore Road, Revere Beach Boulevard, American Legion Highway, and Rice Avenue corridor all under construction at the same time, daily life in Revere has been severely disrupted.” Trips that should have taken five to ten minutes by car in Revere took an hour or more in some cases, Guarino-Sawaya said.
“North Shore Road was bumper to bumper, Revere Beach Boulevard was locked up, Revere Street and Broadway were jammed, and even Lynn Marsh Road was at a gridlock. Residents were sitting in cars for hours, and entire neighborhoods were effectively trapped.” The only positive was that the gridlock took place before school started for the year, the Ward 5 councillor said. “If school buses had been on the road during the standstill, the situation would have been even worse,” Guarino-Sawaya said.
“I received hundreds of calls from residents describing how horrific the traffic was. One resident told me it took her nearly two hours just to get from Revere Street back home to her Oak Island neighborhood; a trip that normally takes less than 10 minutes.” The snarled traffic was a result of a lack of communication between the city, the state, and utility companies conducting multiple large-scale projects in the city, Guarino-Sawaya said. “This should never be happening, and this didn’t just affect Revere, the backup extended into surrounding communities as well,” she said.
“That is why I’m asking the city, the state, and the utility companies to establish a process for construction projects that impact Revere.” Guarino-Sawaya said the city should never again be brought to such a traffic standstill due to multiple overlapping construction projects.
“We cannot allow another situation where Revere is paralyzed for hours because of poor communication and poor planning,” she said. “Never again should our city be brought to a complete standstill.”
