Swamspcott, state tussle over Route 129 traffic control

SWAMPSCOTT – The Town may pay to maintain Humphrey Street, but state officials have said that the town cannot restrict the thoroughfare’s use, leading to frustration and confusion over whether the town or state is responsible for the main thoroughfare.”It kind of irks me that the state tells us what to do,” said Selectman Barry Greenfield at the Selectmen’s Tuesday night meeting. “If we maintain it, we should have the right to dictate what goes through town.”Greenfield first raised the issue of limiting Humphrey Street to trucks with local deliveries in response to a Humphrey Street resident who was concerned about the large trucks and tractor-trailers that routinely come down the street. Selectmen wondered at a previous meeting if all truck traffic – except those making deliveries to Humphrey Street business – could be sent down state-owned-and-maintained Paradise Road. Selectmen noted this would reduce the wear-and-tear on the roads the town maintains, and heavy trucks already travel Paradise Road to make deliveries to businesses in Vinnin Square.At Tuesday night’s meeting, Parking Clerk, Town Accountant and Interim Town Manager Dave Castellarin said his conversations with the state revealed the state will not allow any restrictions on a numbered route. Humphrey Street is Route 129.”It is a numbered roadway, and under MDOT, you cannot restrict truck travel on a numbered road,” Castellarin confirmed on Thursday.But the town makes the decisions n and makes the payments n when it comes to maintaining the road.”The state doesn’t do any work on 129 through Swampscott. We own all the utilities, the sidewalks, we trim the trees,” said Assistant Town Engineer Victoria Masone on Thursday. “To my knowledge, we’ve always maintained that road.”Further complicating the issue, Castellarin said, is that the Town took over the beach from the state almost 30 years ago. It is being reviewed, however, whether that “taking” included the road.Massachusetts Department of Transportation Public Affairs spokesperson Michael Verseckes said Thursday that the agency is “reviewing Route 129 to determine if there are any ownership or jurisdictional issues that might impact the implementation of a truck exclusion.”However, he noted that there were several criteria that had to be met before implementing such an exclusion. These include an engineering study with traffic count and a study of the proposed excluded route and a proposed alternate route that demonstrates repeated heavy use by trucks has deteriorated the former and will not hamper the latter, among several other items.Selectman Jill Sullivan also raised another potential issue with excluding trucks on Humphrey Street.”How are you going to prove that (a truck) is not doing business in Swampscott?” she asked.