LYNN — Broad Street and Lewis Street are slated to receive traffic-signal improvements in the coming years.
“We are very pleased to be able to make these improvements,” Mayor Jared Nicholson said in a statement. “Not only will they improve traffic flow along a very busy corridor, we are hoping the improved efficiency of bus travel will prompt more people to utilize that means of public transportation.”
The city will spend $515,000 to upgrade traffic signals at the intersections of Broad Street and Exchange Street, Broad Street and Silsbee Street, Broad Street and Nahant Street, Broad Street and Green Street, Broad Street and Chesnut Street, Lewis Street and Cherry Street, and Lewis Street and Autumn Street.
The project will also include transit-signal priority technology, which will improve the efficiency and reliability of bus service by allowing a green light to be held as a bus approaches a traffic signal.
City Planner Aaron Clausen said the Lynn Transit Action Plan, completed by the MBTA in 2020, noted that an average of 5,100 bus passengers travel on Broad Street daily and called for making improved bus transit a priority.
MBTA bus routes 441, 442, and 439 all utilize the Broad Street corridor.
“The more efficient we can make it, the more people can rely on it as a primary source of transportation,” Clausen said in a statement. “We want to make the transit system a more viable alternative to driving.”
To fund the project, the city will receive approximately $300,000 from the state Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Community Connections Funding Program, and will also use funding collected via the city’s cannabis host community agreement.
Work will also include upgrading and modernizing the traffic-signal equipment at the intersections that lead from Broad Street to Route 1A.
The Inspectional Services Department will serve as project manager and will work in collaboration with the DPW, the Planning Department, and the MBTA bus priority group.
Clausen said that the city will likely begin the design and engineering of the signal upgrades this fall, with possible implementation in spring 2024.
