NEWS

The long-awaited reconstruction of the intersection of Long Pond and Halfway Pond Roads is about to begin.

In a well-attended public meeting on March 6 at Plymouth South Middle School, the Department of Public Works and A.D. Makepeace, together with their traffic engineers, construction contractor and Plymouth Police, laid out their plan to rebuild the intersection. They also used the meeting to alert the community to unavoidable traffic disruptions during construction and the importance of community patience and cooperation during the process.

Their bottom line:
• There will be serious traffic delays at the intersection this summer but the result will be a vastly improved intersection providing more orderly movement, reduced traffic delays, improved safety and major environmental benefits.
• The actual road reconstruction, which will start in April, is scheduled for completion before winter, and will be timed to take into account high demand traffic conditions such as school bus movements.
The physical plan calls for widening both Long Pond and Halfway Pond roads as they approach the intersection to accommodate a dedicated right-turn lane from Long Pond south onto Halfway Pond west and a dedicated left-turn lane on Halfway Pond east heading onto Long Pond Road north – historically the two dominant vehicular travel movements through this intersection.

The plan also calls for bike lanes and pedestrian crossings, with both vehicular and pedestrian movements under a traffic light control system that can read traffic demand and adjust signal timing to minimize unnecessary delays. And it provides for a new underground stormwater collection and filtration system to prevent flooding during severe weather conditions. Collectively, the engineers describe these improvements as a state-of-the-art system.

This intersection project is the final phase of a public improvements program committed to and paid for by the A.D. Makepeace Company as part of the permitting process for the Redbrook development that was approved in 2008. It was designed to be responsive to not only traffic growth attributable to the development but also overall population and traffic growth in south Plymouth.

After the presentation the community was invited to ask questions and share their concerns. A number of issues were raised, including:
• The need for the community to be kept abreast of traffic conditions at the intersection so they can anticipate the delays and leave enough time to get to their destinations.
• A concern that private and gravel roads in the community will be used to bypass the intersection during construction - namely Herring Way, West Long Pond Road, and Mast Road. These are narrow, unpaved, residential roads whose safety, condition, and use by walkers would all be harmed by added through-traffic.
• The need for restorative landscaping at the edges of the roadway to help maintain the rural character of the community.
• The difficulty of exiting Justine Road onto Halfway Pond Road because of the speed and volume of traffic - even before construction, and the poor condition of the Halfway Pond Road surface and need for replacement.

The issues were all discussed at length and the project planners committed to working with the community to address them. As a caveat to all these discussions, the planners emphasized that, given the complexity of the project and whims of nature, the contractor will need some flexibility to deal with these and other contingencies.

In support of this commitment to public partnership, the DPW has created a project webpage at https://www.plymouth-ma.gov/1397/Long-Pond-Road-at-Halfway-Pond-Road-Bloo. This site contains a proposed construction schedule and contains links to downloadable construction and traffic-mitigation plans as well as other information.

The Six Ponds Association will continue to work with the Town of Plymouth and A.D. Makepeace as the project proceeds and will report important changes through this newsletter and email blasts. If you have any thoughts or concerns about this project please contact Hampton Watkins, hampton.watkins@gmail.com  or by phone 617-510-4656.