Paving the way for SouthField housing

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The certificate nullifies a previous certificate that would have required an overhaul of three intersections on Route 18 to be completed as a condition for LNR Property Corp. to receive occupancy permits.

“The proponent (LNR) should work closely with the towns, Mass Highway and the Executive Office of Transportation to develop the mitigation plan,” Bowles said in issuing the certificate of compliance.

“The public, town departments, and elected officials should be given a period of no less than 30 days to comment on a draft of the plan, before it is finalized and takes effect.”

LNR is in the beginning stages of a 14-year project to build SouthField, a residential and commercial complex at the former air base. Approximately 500 condos are slated for occupancy in 2009 or six months after Mass Highway is expected to have completed work at three intersections on Route 18.

Work is underway at the corners of Columbian Street, Park Avenue, and West Street. The renovations will eventually include updated traffic signals, and additional turning lanes for motorists on each approach angle in the intersections.

Bowles said an interim traffic plan could be implemented that allows LNR to receive occupancy permits if the roadway overhauls are not substantially done six months prior to the condos being ready for habitation. Any traffic plan would require input by officials from Weymouth, Abington and Rockland if it is needed.

The traffic plan would remain in effect from the time occupancy occurs in the condos until all renovations on the intersections are substantially completed.

Mass Highway spokesman Erik Abel said work on the three crossroads should be done by next summer.

“We started the project last fall, and continued into this spring,” Abel said on Monday. “We are just under 40 percent done at this point, and we do remain on schedule for completion in 2008.”

Weymouth District 5 Councilor Paul Leary said Mass Highway is making great progress on getting the renovations done, but cautioned against believing the effort will greatly resolve traffic woes on Route 18.

“I think the waiver in the certificate is in case there is a construction delay, such as the one that occurred when Pond Street and Main Street were widened,” he said. “That occurred because there were utility poles in the middle of the road.”

He said the real culprit to solving traffic snarls on Route 18 is to get the highway widened.

“The traffic problems on Route 18 is not just at the intersections,” Leary said. “Most of the traffic on Route 18 is through traffic. You have people who are driving to Whitman, and Abington. Things won’t change one iota until Route 18 is widened.”

Abel said Route 18 is on the state’s Transportation Improvement Plan, (TIP) for funding.

“The widening is scheduled to be advertised for bid by 2010,” he said. “Work is moving along to that goal.”

The eventual expansion of the highway is slated to occur on a four-mile stretch that starts at Highland Place near Route 3, and continues south to Route 139 in Abington.

“Work could start in 2011,” Abel said. “That would hinge on when the bids are opened, but 2011 is roughly the timeline we are working with right now.”