State officials are looking at a proposal to add a bypass lane entering what is known as as Goodwin Circle westbound from Salem Street, which is on the right side of the map above.
By Adam Swift
LYNNFIELD — State officials are considering an additional lane entering Goodwin Circle westbound from Salem Street that could ease traffic for motorists in Lynnfield, Peabody and Lynn.
In June, state representatives from the three communities sent a letter to Paul Stedman, Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) District 4 highway director, to request the lane reconfiguration.
Earlier this month, the representatives heard back from Stedman, who said MassDOT engineers will be getting traffic counts and conducting a study to see if a bypass lane is warranted for the road. The proposed bypass lane would be similar to the one on the Salem Street eastbound entry to the rotary and the exit to Lynnfield Street.
The engineers will also be getting the latest available crash data to see if there are any crash trends related to the current configuration of the rotary.
Those studies should be completed by the end of October, according to Stedman.
“Assuming a bypass lane is warranted, widening of the ramp to Routes 1/I-95 would be required in addition to the widening of the Salem Street westbound approach to the rotary,” Stedman stated in a letter to state Reps. Thomas Walsh, Brad Jones and Donald Wong. “Similar widening was previously done on the Salem Street eastbound entry to and exit from the rotary to provide adequate lane widths.”
The goal of the lane change is increased traffic flow and a reduction in the bottleneck during the morning rush hour westward along Lynnfield and Salem streets.
“The recent lane adaptions on the eastbound lanes of Salem Street coming from Route 1 have had a tremendously positive impact on the evening traffic flow,” the state representatives said in the June letter to Stedman. “We suggest that a similar reconfiguration on the westbound side would produce the same positive results. This would significantly improve the morning commute.”
Adam Swift can be reached at [email protected].