LYNN — Planning Board members and engineers presented an outline of the $20 million plan to reconstruct a portion of Essex Street from Joyce Street to Eastern Avenue to a crowd of roughly 35 residents Thursday night at Ingalls Elementary School, answering the public’s questions on the project’s safety and accessibility features.
Opening the first of six public meetings aimed to keep community members informed on the project’s design and garner residents’ feedback. Principal Planner Aaron Clausen introduced representatives from the engineering firm Tighe and Bond, which the city hired to help design the corridor reconstruction.
Tighe and Bond Senior Vice President Rich Benevento explained to the crowd that the city began designing infrastructure improvements at Essex Street to ameliorate Lynn’s four most dangerous intersections.
The Department of Transportation, which Benevento said would take on 20% of the project’s construction costs, with federal partners covering the other 80%, encouraged the city to reconstruct the entire corridor.
“We want to make sure that we’re creating a project that meets the community’s needs — that’s tailored to what all of you would like to see in this corridor,” Tighe and Bond Senior Vice President Rich Benevento said. “Safety is always paramount, so this project will address safety issues — particularly at those intersections — but also pedestrian safety, bicycle safety, and other deficiencies along the roadway.”
With construction slated to begin in 2026, the city is designing a thoroughly renovated corridor featuring elongated curbs to reduce crossing distances, new catch basins to improve drainage, on-street bicycle lanes, improved traffic lights and signs, potentially new MBTA bus stops, and fully ADA-compliant streets and sidewalks.
When one resident asked whether street lights and trees would be considered in the city’s design, Clausen responded that improved lighting is included in the city’s plan for Essex Street, noting that it is an important safety feature.
“Yes — this is going to be looking at the corridor from the backside of the sidewalk to the other side of the backside of the sidewalk, and it will take into consideration all of the street furniture lighting is a part of that,” Clausen said.
Ward 3 City Councilor Coco Alinsug, who attended the public meeting as an audience member, asked Clausen whether bus stop shelters would be included in the plan and, if so, where they could fit in a relatively narrow corridor.
In response, Benevento said the city and engineers would have to decide whether a sheltered bus stop would be a sensible use of space in the area. Clausen added that one of the team’s top priorities in its use of space on Essex Street is to ensure the street is safe for Ingalls students.
“We’re going to want to find ways to make it more safe for children and their families to walk to and from school, and we’ll be looking at a number of methods to make it a bit safer,” Clausen said.
Residents also discussed the idea of constructing a rotary at the intersection of Fayette and Essex streets with Clausen and the engineers.
Tigh and Bond Vice President Bill Mertz said that while a rotary with intermittent traffic lights might assist with the safe flow of traffic, the intersection’s location next to the Fayette Street Station firehouse might impede firefighters’ access to the roadway in the event of an emergency.
“Having the roundabout is still an option. There is obviously concern because of the Fire Station and also because of how close it is to the other signal. So that is, again, a process we’re working through,” Mertz said. “At the end of the day, it’s about safety and access. If the Fire Department is saying, ‘We can’t live with this,’ I think it’d be safe to say it’s not going to happen.”
Clausen said the city expects to submit a review of 25% of its design to MassDOT sometime in the spring of 2024. He reminded the crowd that the public will have numerous opportunities to weigh in on the design features.
