Selectmen Endorse Traffic Island and More Beach Parking

Selectmen approved a traffic island at one end of town and additional parking at the other on Tuesday.

Board members approved the town Traffic Study Committee’s recommendation to install a permanent traffic island in the middle of Elmwood Road where it intersects Paradise Road.

Public Works Director Gino Cresta said the temporary barrels put in place about a month ago to test the effectiveness of a median had done their job.

Neighborhood residents reported to the committee that the barrel island had slowed traffic entering Elmwood from Paradise and directed vehicles into the proper lane.

Before the barrels were in place vehicles routinely swerved into the opposing lane when entering Elmwood from Paradise. especially from the Lynn-bound direction.

Other parts of the approved recommendation were to restrict parking on both sides of Elmwood for the last 30 feet at the Paradise end and to keep traffic two-way.

Cresta said Public Works crews can build the island for about $5,000, or, if the work gets subcontracted out, it would cost about $10,000.

In either case budget dollars would pay for the work, he said.

The director expects construction  would take a week. He did not say when it would be done, only that it would be in the next fiscal year.

Selectmen also approved seven additional parking spaces for Shepard Avenue to improve access to Phillips Beach.

The spaces would be open to residents with Recreation Department parking stickers.

The spaces will extend from the beach entrance to the crosswalk, on the ocean-side of the road.

“They would impact the Beach Club but not impact residents,” Cresta said.