Saugus Police: Bridge traffic only getting worse

SAUGUS-When asked if the Police Department has received many traffic complaints, Lt. Michael Annese laughed.Between the Belden Bly Bridge project on Route 107 and its detours, Christmas shoppers on Route 1, locals and commuters looking for alternate routes through side streets and back to back snow storms, Annese said the station is hopping with traffic calls, most of them complaints.The bulk of the calls he said, seem to come in the evening.”It starts around 5 p.m. and goes until 7 or 8 p.m.,” he said. “That’s when it gets really crazy.”While he would like nothing more than to put a steady traffic patrol on detour streets around the Belden Bly Bridge project, Annese said that isn’t possible because across town, traffic at the mall is just as bad.”People are trying to get from one location to another everyone’s in a hurry, everyone’s upset,” he said. “I think once the holiday is over people will work out their routes and things will calm down. People just have to be patient.”Selectman Michael Kelleher, however, is running short of patience when it comes to the bridge project and is calling for Town Manager Andrew Bisignani to declare it a town-wide emergency.Bisignani said it is certainly a town-wide problem but it is a state issue because it’s a state project.”We’re dealing with an increase in traffic that we’re not used to,” he said. “The bridge project could not be put off though. These are emergency repairs not routine maintenance.”At Kelleher’s request, Bisignani is trying to put together a meeting with state and local officials and community members for Jan. 5 to discuss the traffic gridlock.Kelleher said he is still befuddled over why the project had to start before the holidays and he is none too happy with how the snow storm has contributed to the chaos.”Thank you for your efforts, but enough is enough,” wrote Kelleher in an email to Bisignani. “I spent two hours in the area by foot tonight and it is apparent that Mass Highway is completely AWOL on this project.”Kelleher said he is not the only one upset over the project. He received a e-mail from one Sunnyside Park resident who went to pick up his daughter on Jackson Street and thought there was a parade. It was, to his dismay, traffic backed up from the bridge project, and it was gridlocked.The resident told Kelleher he believed the issue was bound to become a safety issue for East Saugus residents and said the state should be providing additional support.Kelleher said that email is one of more than a dozen that he has received regarding traffic woes and Route 107 detours.Bisignani said he understands the concern and the anger but, “It is what it is.””We had no choice and I don’t know what we could be doing with our limited resources that we aren’t doing already,” he said.Bisignani said he is talking to state officials regarding help with snow removal because the snow must be physically removed from some areas. Spots like Cliftondale Square are narrow enough to begin with and Bisignani said plowing the snow only contributes to the problem. Instead, it should be removed, but that has been tricky too.Department of Public Works Superintendent Joseph Attubato said the bridge project is also getting in his way. When crews headed down to Cliftondale Square Monday around 7 p.m. to continue storm clean up, they were thwarted by bumper to bumper traffic backed up from Rowe’s Quarry in Revere clear to the Lynn line.”That bridge is causing a lot of grief,” he said. “We had to wait to clean up.”Annese remained confident that there is a light at the end of the chaotic tunnel and he said he is begging people to be patient.”In two to three weeks we’ll have this squared away,” he said. “The holidays will be over. People just have to be patient.”