The traffic and pedestrian safety redesign project focuses on the streets from Redfern Drive to Bliss Court.
Photo credit: Fuss & O’Neill
LONGMEADOW — Changes may be coming to the streets around the Longmeadow Big Y.
Project Manager Aaron Keegan and Project Director Nicholas Lapointe of design firm Fuss & O’Neill delivered a presentation to the Select Board with three possible solutions to traffic at the intersections from Redfern Drive to Bliss Court.
The design work was funded through a 2024 MassWorks design grant for infrastructure related to economic development. As DPW Director Sean Van Deusen explained, the town was eligible for the grant because the intersections are related to The Colvest Group’s redevelopment of 916 Williams St. As there are few properties left to be redeveloped, Van Deusen said it is a “unique opportunity” and one the town will not likely see again.
Before beginning, Keegan said that the project goals of calming traffic while increasing pedestrian and bike safety align with Longmeadow’s Long-Range Plan.
There are two parts to the project, and Keegan and Lapointe said the town could choose to do one, both or neither. The parts can be undertaken separately or in conjunction with one another.
The first part of the project is the four-way intersection of Redfern Drive, Williams Street and Frank Smith Road. The signal lights at the intersection are outdated, Keegan said, and the pedestrian ramps and call buttons do not meet Massachusetts Department of Transportation standards. To address this, Keegan suggested a redesigned intersection. Whereas Williams Street westbound and Frank Smith Road have right turn-only lanes, the design calls for each of the four directions to have a left turn lane with a dedicated arrow signal.
This would “reduce the severity of crashes” by eliminating the need to yield for oncoming vehicles. An 8-foot lane on the side of the intersection can be used as a bike lane. The price of this work was estimated to cost between $1 million and $1.2 million.
The second part of the design, which tackles the “triangle” around Big Y and its gas station, was proposed with three options. The first would create a small roundabout where there is now a grassy median in front of the gas station, at the Longmeadow Shops exit near the restaurant, Lola’s. It “fits very well” in the space, Keegan commented. He said introducing a circular traffic pattern would reduce crashes and eliminate the possibility of “T-bone” accidents.
“Right now, you can kind of just fly right through there,” said Lapointe, who lives in Longmeadow. A roundabout would require drivers to slow down. He also said there would be space for a “pocket park” or small grassy area between the gas station and the roundabout. The plan also calls for a crosswalk near the roundabout.
The lanes on Bliss Court would be narrowed, encouraging slower speeds, and a lane would be added for pedestrians or bicyclists. Laplante said this option is relatively “bare bones,” with “minor work.” Fuss & O’Neill estimated it would cost between $1.3 million and $1.9 million, with the roundabout accounting for $300,000 to $600,000 of that.
The second option is “more transformative,” Keegan said. In addition to the roundabout, Bliss Road and Williams Street would be reduced to one lane each. Keegan explained that two lanes create what he described as “courtesy crashes,” where the driver in the left lane yields to a pedestrian in the crosswalk, but in doing so, blocks line of sight for the driver in the right lane, who cannot see the pedestrian and stop in time.
Lapointe said one lane can handle more than 1,000 vehicles per hour at 40 miles per hour. With the 30 mph allowed in the project area, he estimated the lane could support a rate of 900 vehicles per hour. Traffic counts were completed when designing the middle school and found that the roads saw an average of 700 vehicles per hour. While there may be what Lapointe described as “perceived congestion,” the triangle would still experience free flow conditions. A bike land would be separated from vehicle traffic and elevated to sidewalk height. “It is the most safety you can provide for bicyclists,” said Keegan.
In addition to narrowing Bliss Court and creating a bike lane, the plan calls for “half-roundabouts” on the corners where Bliss Court meets Bliss Road and Williams Street. Vehicles driving east on both streets would have to yield to traffic in the half-roundabouts. This would eliminate the chance of accidents when vehicles cross paths to turn left or right onto Williams Street. This option would cost between $2 million and $2.4 million.
The third option is a hybrid of the first two plans. The roundabout would be eliminated and, instead, keep the median in front of the gas station. The half-roundabouts would be included at either end of Bliss Court. Bliss Road and Bliss Court would be one lane, while Williams Street would be one lane until it widens to include a left turn lane by the median, as there is now. Both Williams Street and Bliss Road would have elevated bike lanes, and a Bliss Court would have a level bike lane. This plan is estimated to cost between $2 million and $2.5 million.
Depending on the option chosen, the entire project, including the work at Redfern Drive, Williams Street and Frank Smith Road, would cost between $2.3 million and $4.3 million. Typically, MassWorks construction grants are capped at $5 million, Lapointe said, and the plans were created with that in mind.
If the town pursued the plans, the complete design would be presented in April 2026. The town could apply for the MassWorks construction grant in May of that year and be awarded in November. Construction would begin in spring 2027.
Select Board member Dan Zwirko asked if it would change the curb cuts at any of the businesses along those roads. Keegan said option one would not. Options two and three would widen the curb cuts. The plazas would not lose any entrances or exits.
Select Board member Andrew Lam said the work at the Redfern Drive intersection “makes a lot of sense,” but he has concerns about the rest of the project. Lam said the benefit of roundabouts is that accidents occur at lower speeds, making them less deadly, but they do not prevent accidents. He asked Police Chief Robert Stocks if there were many accidents at the grassy median near the gas station.
Stocks said, “Not a high rate, but enough to be concerned.” As an example, he said that three weeks before the meeting, a child on a bicycle was hit by a vehicle in front of Lola’s. Of mitigating the traffic in the area, he said, “It’s something I’ve been a proponent of for many, many years.” Traffic frequenting the businesses is good for the town, but he joked, “I did also lose a little more hair.”
Lam said he had personally seen a “courtesy crash,” so he saw the value of making the road a single lane, but he worried that slowing traffic at the roundabout and again at the half-roundabouts would bog down during rush hours and school pick-ups.
Van Deusen opined, “My guess is it would have less of an impact as you would think because the cars are slowing down, they’re not stalling trying to wait for two lanes to merge” on Bliss Court. Zwirko commented that the half-roundabouts would lessen the chance of people going the wrong way onto Williams Street.
If the town chose to keep the roads as two lanes, Keegan said it could employ raised crosswalks, which function as speed bumps, requiring vehicles to slow down. Button activated flashing beacons could also be used to alert drivers to pedestrians.
When asked by Select Board member Shelly Maynard-DeWolf. Keegan explained that his team had not designed a roundabout at the four-way intersection because the town does not have enough land in that location to accommodate one.
Select Board member Vineeth Hemavathi asked if Fuss & O’Neill is coordinating with The Colvest Group on areas where their plans might overlap. Lapointe said the developer is aware of the firm’s design work, and the two would mesh their plans when the design is closer to completion.
Considering the possibilities, Hemavathi said he was leaning toward the second option, particularly because there would be increased safety for bicyclists and the safety benefits of a roundabout.
Maynard-DeWolf suggested the consultants set up a table outside the Town Meeting in November to explain the project to residents and answer questions. Hemavathi also wondered about opportunities for public input. Town Manager Lyn Simmons said the designers had used public feedback from the Long-Range Plan and Complete Streets processes. There were no plans for other public feedback. For Fuss & O’Neill to stay on deadline, she said the board would need to decide on which, if any, of the plans to pursue near the end of October.
