With the City Council on summer schedule now, only meeting once a month in July and August – There won’t be much news coming out of City Hall – So here is an (Update) on the Tatnuck Sq. Project
The Tatnuck Sq. reconfiguration project will begin on Monday July 7th. – I have been told by the city that they will begin with doing new sidewalks. In small stretches at a time, along Pleasant St. in the business district. Some delays are likely as construction equipment will be present. The entire project does not seem to have a defined finish date. But it will last till at least the fall or later.
The biggest part of the project would be the complete change to Mower St. Making it one lane and one way only on the Peoples United Bank side from Pleasant St. heading out to the reservoir. While expanding the other side from 2 to 3 lanes on the Santander Bank side to install a third left turn only lane. The original reason given to make such a dramatic change to Mower St. was because the light at Gerardi’s Service Center was to be removed, that would have removed the option of taking a left turn at that light from Mower onto Pleasant.
However, the plan has now been changed again to (Keep) that light, so there will still be both lights just as there are now. So why does Mower St. still have to have this major change made to it? The decision to keep the light at Gerardi’s was made after the meeting at Worcester State University. If that light is now going to stay, then making the changes to Mower St. no longer make any sense at all. Cars exiting Peoples United Bank will now have to cross against 2 lanes of oncoming traffic to get over to a newly created third left turn only lane on the Santander Bank side.
The (Good) news is that (All) the existing traffic signals will be replaced by new state of the art signal lights, capable of delayed turns and timing, and capable of being synced with each other. That will also be done at Chandler and Mill St. where we have a huge problem with traffic flow. The new traffic signals will make a big difference for a much improved traffic flow and less back-ups in Tatnuck Sq. The Mower St. change doesn’t make sense any longer now that the light at Gerardi’s is going to stay. The upgraded traffic signals are the only solution to the problems to improve traffic flow. But you’ll (Still) have the Drive-Thru problem at Dunkin Donuts that backs up traffic on Chandler St. in play. – A (Big) mistake that was made ever allowing that in the first place!
Sincerely,
Paul Gunnerson – President
Tatnuck Neighborhood Association Inc.
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