Paving Could Make For Messy Monday Commute In Beverly

BEVERLY, MA -- Crews will begin paving Essex Street between the new roundabout and Cole Street on Monday. In a post on Twitter, the Beverly Engineering Department warned that drivers should expect delays and detours. Cars not removed from the street by 7 am will be towed.

The work is related to the construction of the new roundabout. Traffic engineers believe the $$954,900 project will improve safety at the Essex-Meadow intersection. Last year a 28-year-old man was killed after being thrown from his car in a three-vehicle crash, but safety concerns about the interchange go back decades. Over that timeframe residents have made a number of efforts to petition the city for the installation of a traffic light there. Those efforts were complicated in part because both Essex Street is a state-owned road.

The city ultimately decided the best solution was the roundabout. And the key reason for choosing a roundabout over a traffic light is that the city believes it will be safer. Construction documents and traffic studies for the project, as well as comments made during a public meeting on the project last year, reason that roundabouts not only slow traffic as cars enter and exit, but they also reduce the chances of deadly, T-bone crashes.

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Patch file photo via Shutterstock.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).