Major Changes Coming to Fells Parkway-Melrose Street Intersection

(Editor's note: This article was updated on Tuesday, Oct. 12 at 5:45 p.m. with pictures from the DCR's plans.)

In April, Mark McLean from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and a DCR engineer parked on Crystal Street to watch the typical morning traffic at the intersection of the Lynn Fells Parkway, Melrose Street and Crystal Street. He came to one conclusion.

"It was pretty horrible," McLean told the Melrose Board of Aldermen on Monday night.

McLean presented at the Board of Aldermen meeting on Monday, Oct. 4 the DCR's plans to improve traffic safety at the intersection, accompanied by Adam Parr, DCR Deputy Chief Park Ranger, and Christine Kurker, DCR Crossing Guard Supervisor. DCR would spend $105,000-110,000 on improvements, while the city would spend about $9,000 in a joint effort.

In June, Melrose Patch reported no proposals were in place yet. At last week's meeting, the DCR's proposals were unveiled, which McLean said he hopes are completed this fall:

• Heading westbound on the Lynn Fells Parkway towards the high school-middle school complex, making the right lane (in front of the Dunkin Dounts at 470 Lynn Fells Parkway) a right turn only lane onto Melrose Street. McLean said the intent is to prevent cars in the right lane from speeding through the intersection to pass cars in the left lane and continuing straight on the parkway. "At Dunkin Donuts, a lot of people just gun it," he said.

• Extending out the curb on the northeast side of the intersection, between the current entrance to the Eastern Bank parking lot and the exit of the Dunkin Dounts. McLean said "that curve used to be a lot tighter," but in the 1960s-70s, it became more of a sweeping curve, allowing cars to turn right onto Melrose Street at higher speeds. Restoring the original curb line would make it a tighter right hand turn, requiring drivers to slow down.

• On Melrose Street, creating an almost 80-foot long median island starting at the intersection that would be six-feet wide at the parkway and four-feet wide at the end near the teacher's parking lot entrance. McLean said that the current crosswalk is 86 feet long across Melrose Street, "which in crosswalk lingo is extremely unsafe." The median would serve to both slow down traffic, provide a refuge for pedestrians crossing the street, and according to Melrose Public Works Superintendent Bob Beshara, prevent drivers "from swinging in behind the crossing guard and going into the parking lot at Foodmaster. The crossing guard is out in the street and they're going right behind them like it's nothing."

• Raising the curb in front of the Dunkin Dounts to prevent drivers from illegally parking there.

In light of the DCR's plans, The Scrivanos Group, owner of the Dunkin Donuts on the parkway, have filed a request to withdraw their petition to install a drive-thru window.

Attorney Judith Clark, representing The Scrivanos Group, wrote in a letter dated Oct. 7 to Melrose Zoning Board of Appeals, "clearly, the reconfigurations outlined in the DCR's plans will have an impact on the site, and we feel that this is not an appropriate time to move forward. I presume that the Board may agree with us on that point."

The city portion of the project involves prohibiting a lefthand turn from Crystal Street onto the parkway—which Beshara said the city has yet to discuss with Crystal Street residents—and bumping out the curb there to prevent that turn.

Beshara said drivers coming off Crystal Street, which is one-way, trying to turn left on to the parkway end up stopping over the stop line, which "creates a scary issue if they're turning or coming across on Melrose Street."

Alderman at Large Mary Beth McAteer Margolis said the extended curb may help, but said she believed the city would have difficulty enforcing a no left turn from Crystal Street to Lynn Fells Parkway rule, with drivers saying they had come down Melrose Street, not Crystal Street.

Also, the city is exploring closing the current entrance to the Eastern Bank and Foodmaster parking lot, and instead make the exit from the parking lot further down Melrose Street a two-way entrance and exit. Beshara said the city is continuing to talk with the property owner about that possibility.