LYNN — The city put out an invitation for bids on Monday seeking construction workers for the Blossom Street and Lynnway intersection safety repair project.
The city will select a bidder for the estimated $1.8 million project, funded by a MassWorks grant, by Sept. 1. Department of Public Works Commissioner Andrew Hall said that he expects the work to begin in the fall, and hopes that the project will be completed next summer.
The project, Hall said, will improve safety, traffic flow, and waterfront pedestrian access at the intersection of Blossom Street and the Lynnway by adding a traffic light, allowing northbound traffic on the Lynnway to turn left on Blossom Street.
“There’s going to be a new signal put on the Lynnway at Blossom Street allowing northbound traffic on the Lynnway to go inland at Blossom Street,” Hall said. “It will also allow pedestrians a safe and convenient way across the runway to get to the waterfront.”
Hall said that although the project mainly aims to improve traffic flow on the Lynnway, the traffic light will provide pedestrians safe access to the waterfront, which, Hall said, is a needed commodity.
“It’s more (for) traffic, but you know, people do cross the road there, but it’s very unsafe. We see people stuck in the media and out there, pedestrians trying to get across, and it’s not pedestrian friendly at all right now. So we’re aiming to change that,” Hall said. “One of the big problems with our waterfront is you can’t get there. Not safely at least. This is going to rectify that to some degree.”
Mayor Jared Nicholson mentioned the Blossom Street Lynnway project in an interview with The Item Monday. He said that the Blossom Street traffic light construction project is a small chunk in the city’s approximately $140 million vision for future infrastructure.
“One of my focus areas building on the prior administration has been large infrastructure projects, the transportation improvement projects, so we have a number of them lined up, I think if you add it all together, it’s something like $140 million. In terms of tracking these projects over the next several years. One of them is the reconstruction of Blossom Street at the intersection of the Lynnway, and that’s going to create that additional turnoff there,” Nicholson said.
Hall said that the project will likely lead to temporary lane closures on the Lynnway, but that the city will do everything that it can to lessen construction impacts for commuters.
“I just appreciate the patience of everyone on the Lynnway. The Lynnway has been dug up by the Town of Nahant all summer, and it’s been a bit of a challenge, and we’re hoping this will go smoothly and not cause much impact,” Hall said. “There will be impacts. You know, you can’t rip the median out and install a signal without some impacts, so I imagine they’ll do temporary lane closures. Then we’re going to look to minimize impacts on the motoring public.”
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at [email protected].
