Waltham Infill and Small Developments

[tjrileymass]

Are they planning on connecting 3rd/5th Aves. to Tower/Border Rds. when the northern Polaroid parcels are fully graded? Based on the dirt truck access roads to that dig site there seems to be a template developing for a contiguous street grid connecting those roads together, but I can't tell if that's part of the final plan. Would bridge the gap between the 70, which stops inside the 117-facing grid, and the Alewife Shuttle bus, which stops inside the Totten Pond-facing grid.

Yes

The fourth component is an internal connector road between 1265 Main and Fifth Avenue, in an effort to further keep unnecessary cars off of local roads.

 

[whighlander]

Are they planning on connecting 3rd/5th Aves. to Tower/Border Rds. when the northern Polaroid parcels are fully graded? Based on the dirt truck access roads to that dig site there seems to be a template developing for a contiguous street grid connecting those roads together, but I can't tell if that's part of the final plan. Would bridge the gap between the 70, which stops inside the 117-facing grid, and the Alewife Shuttle bus, which stops inside the Totten Pond-facing grid.

F-Line -- good analysis on a suburban areas infrastructure needs

Unfortunately, the developers of the two principal parcels are not the same and the City of Waltham has not apparently provided any coordination

https://goo.gl/maps/CpZoeqhbTPB2

The only thing that is contiguous is Eversource's HV Transmission Line easement

 

[Equilibria]

Tomas said most of the project will be privately funded but that developers are working with state officials to identify a possible public/private partnership for the Route 117 bridge construction, the largest part of the improvement project.

Tomas said by and large, the office and retail development can’t begin until the road improvement projects start. He hopes construction on Phase II of the project can begin by 2018.

Welp, that's pure fantasy. Beyond the simple impossibility of obtaining MassDOT funding for a project that isn't in the CIP, with an envisioned start date 18 months away, through a PPP (which MassDOT doesn't really know how to do), MassDOT isn't just going to adopt their proposed road layout, nor should they. Earlier versions of road improvements for this project had the developer funding a new bridge across 128, but not Interstate ramp changes. If MassDOT wants to rationalize the Route 20 exit and add 117 access - and they should - it should be a real project that isn't just designed to shuttle people to a lifestyle center.

 

[whighlander]

Yes

TJRileyMass -- You need to read these kinds of "news stories" -- which are actually PR pieces with a degree of skepticism

While the developer had in its pocket everything it needed to do the Clarks, Marshalls and Market Basket phase -- the same can not be said about Phase 2

you can see that a lot of Phase 2 is speculative -- my highlights in bold and my comments embedded in [comment]

Below we break down what the next phase of the project could look like, what the proposed traffic adjustments are, and what the timeline of the process is.

What is proposed for Phase II at 1265 Main?

The next phase of the project could consist of up to a million square feet of office, retail and hotel space on the land just north of the current site. The proposed development plan is a “proper mixed use” with uses and services that complement each other, according to Carmine Tomas, representative for 1265 Main LLC, the developer of the project.....

Tomas said 1265 Main LLC won’t begin soliciting tenants until after all state and local approvals are final. He said the eventual build out of the site will be determined by tenant demand, but there is already high interest in terms of retailers looking to move onto the site.....

What are the proposed traffic improvements?

“There’s a ton of work that needs to be done in this city in regards to traffic,” said state Rep. Tom Stanley.....

The proposed improvements can be broken down into four components:

• The largest piece is replacing the four-lane Route 117 bridge with a seven-lane bridge, complete with sidewalks for bicycles and pedestrians.
  
• The second is the construction of a Green Street connector road. The road would allow traffic coming east or west on Main Street to have direct access to Route 128 southbound, something not currently available. The connector road would also provide access for those traveling in either direction on Route 128 with direct access to Route 117 to the west or 1265 Main to the east, after exiting on the Route 20 ramp.
  
• The third component is a new northbound ramp off of Main Street, allowing direct access to Route 128 northbound to anyone traveling east or west on Main Street.
  
• The fourth component is an internal connector road between 1265 Main and Fifth Avenue, in an effort to further keep unnecessary cars off of local roads.

[the above seems like the developer's wish list -- "Dear Santa...."]

Tomas said most of the project will be privately funded but that developers are working with state officials to identify a possible public/private partnership for the Route 117 bridge construction, the largest part of the improvement project.

Tomas said by and large, the office and retail development can’t begin until the road improvement projects start. He hopes construction on Phase II of the project can begin by 2018.

So the only part of the road work within the control of the developer [extending the 1265 Main's internal road network to connect with the Prospect Hill network at 5th Avenue] is to be deferred until all of the Mass DOT work on Rt-128 and the Rt-117 bridge is at least underway

Don't hold your breath on this one

 

[whighlander]

Welp, that's pure fantasy. Beyond the simple impossibility of obtaining MassDOT funding for a project that isn't in the CIP, with an envisioned start date 18 months away, through a PPP (which MassDOT doesn't really know how to do), MassDOT isn't just going to adopt their proposed road layout, nor should they. Earlier versions of road improvements for this project had the developer funding a new bridge across 128, but not Interstate ramp changes. If MassDOT wants to rationalize the Route 20 exit and add 117 access - and they should - it should be a real project that isn't just designed to shuttle people to a lifestyle center.

Equilibria -- Unfortunately you are exactly on target with that observation

However, it's an admirable goal and sometime after the new ramps connecting I-93 with Rt-128 / I-95 in Woburn are completed the Mass DOT should continue the process of rationalizing and updating the whole network built around Rt-128/I-95

For example:

• on both sides of Rt-128 from the Pike North of Rt-3 if possible but Rt-2 for sure -- some sort of local reliever to get the traffic that only travels a few exits off the highway -- this will no doubt face intense local opposition
• Continue I-93 South to connect with I-495 on the approach to the Cape
• renumber I-93 from I-95 [as I-393] to and reconstruct the Braintree Split with a connector from I-93 directly to Quincy [I-193?]
• reconstruct the I-90 / I-95 interchange clearing out all the superfluous ramps once the toll booths are gone

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Welp, that's pure fantasy. Beyond the simple impossibility of obtaining MassDOT funding for a project that isn't in the CIP, with an envisioned start date 18 months away, through a PPP (which MassDOT doesn't really know how to do), MassDOT isn't just going to adopt their proposed road layout, nor should they. Earlier versions of road improvements for this project had the developer funding a new bridge across 128, but not Interstate ramp changes. If MassDOT wants to rationalize the Route 20 exit and add 117 access - and they should - it should be a real project that isn't just designed to shuttle people to a lifestyle center.

If they want to kick-start something, the coalition probably needs to hire their own engineering firm to take a crack at a full conceptual design. Nobody has to ask MassDOT for permission to consult outside traffic engineers on a concept design that involves MassDOT roads. But showing the work is going to be key if they want to put on an advocacy that'll get the interchange expedited up the priority list. Too many requests for feasibility studies have to take a number before the state can sift through and evaluate them all, so the only plausible way to cut in line is for the private interests to pay for the conceptual study that employs the real traffic engineers who know what they're doing and will hand MassDOT the level of detail they need for a real evaluation.

It's been done before successfully and gotten results. But how much does it matter to the developers' bottom line? Good traffic engineering firms aren't cheap, and the state isn't going to be swayed by a bunch of glossies without a level of traffic engineering detail that costs millions to hire. Realistically they probably have to show follow-through on the usefulness of connections they control themselves--the 117-to-Totten Pond street grid through their property--to position themselves as private partners worth an expedited look. And that probably also involves the developers taking it upon themselves to start buying up all the auto chop shop properties on Green St. so the most easily usable acreage for the 117 connector/interchange is in-hand before the state makes a formal evaluation of their concept. Are these developers deep-pocketed enough to want it that bad?

 

[matredsoxfan]

So the entire plan is this.....

1) Build a 2-lane, 2 way connector road with one sidewalk from the current Market Basket access road to 5th Avenue. Boston Properties and the City have agreed to keep a gate at the entrances and close the gates during evening rush hour to prevent city traffic from shortcutting across. This has been approved by the Waltham Traffic Commission and is waiting the completion of the environmental permitting phase.

2) Replace the existing 4-lane bridge carrying Route 117, Main Street over I-95/Route 128 with a 7-lane bridge to accommodate expected traffic and turn lanes. This is expected to be funded by a Public Private Partnership between the developer and MassDOT (Note: these types of project have yet to be included in the MassDOT project database Ex: contract with Raytheon for Electronic Tolling)

3) Build a new 2-way connector roadway along Green Street connecting Main Street, Route 117 to the Route 20 rotary and aligning with Bear Hill Road. Stow Street will be closed off and a cul-de-sac will be constructed on the end closer to Main Street. New traffic signals would also be installed at the I-95 SB on-ramp with the new Green Street connector and one other location in the rotary.

4) Build a New Northbound I-95/128 on-ramp. Vehicles would enter the existing intersection of Stow/Main Street & Tower Road and instead of driving onto the existing Tower Road access road drivers would enter a new on-ramp.

5) The Developer proposing building a new 2-way connector road called the Jones Road connector which will intersect Green Street with a new traffic signal connecting to the existing Jones Road office area. Also proposed is the building of a Multi-Modal transportation center which will include a new commuter rail station.

6) Construction of the Wayside Rail Trail from Main Street, Route 117 to the Weston Town Line. This will also connect to the Multi-Modal transit center.

 

[matredsoxfan]

The City has advertised for bids design services for the 3-miles of the Wayside Rail Trail through Waltham.

 

[tysmith95]

Construction is chugging along on a 400,000 sf office building on the corner of 128 and Trapelo Road. (Apologies for my crappy pic that I tried to take while driving)

I hate sounding like a NIMBY but I'm worried that all of these developments in Waltham and Burlington will make 128 traffic even worse. It's already pretty horrible.

 

[mass88]

Construction is chugging along on a 400,000 sf office building on the corner of 128 and Trapelo Road. (Apologies for my crappy pic that I tried to take while driving)

I hate sounding like a NIMBY but I'm worried that all of these developments in Waltham and Burlington will make 128 traffic even worse. It's already pretty horrible.

Until MassDOT gets serious about rebuilding interchanges - specifically the 93/95 interchange in Woburn (one of the worst interchanges I have seen anywhere) and the 3/95 interchange in Burlington, traffic is always going to be a mess along that stretch.

 

[tysmith95]

Until MassDOT gets serious about rebuilding interchanges - specifically the 93/95 interchange in Woburn (one of the worst interchanges I have seen anywhere) and the 3/95 interchange in Burlington, traffic is always going to be a mess along that stretch.

Agreed. Route 2 is also a problem in spots. Route 2 in Lexington/Arlington is a breeze but Concord can get pretty bad. There are plans to improve the route 2 corridor by getting rid of the rotary and improving the 2A intersection. The bridge over 128 was also rebuilt this past summer. The Alewife area needs to imploded and rebuilt. (I apologize for getting off topic).

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Construction is chugging along on a 400,000 sf office building on the corner of 128 and Trapelo Road.

I hate sounding like a NIMBY but I'm worried that all of these developments in Waltham and Burlington will make 128 traffic even worse. It's already pretty horrible.

The US 3 interchange is the one that stresses 128 traffic on that quadrant and causes all the backups to 2A in Lexington. It's that mangled cloverleaf from the canceled part of the highway that does it, because it just can't handle traffic volumes weighted to 3 directions instead of 4. The minor improvements MassHighway made 15 years ago to the ramp geometry are a drop in the bucket for fixing that, so you can lump that interchange in with Canton split as one that needs to be totally blowed up and redone to fix the glitch. Seeing as how MassHighway doesn't have the funds to expedite rebuild of the deficient 93/128 Reading cloverleaf because Canton and Braintree splits are sucking up all the resources, US 3 has to wait in line behind Reading in the funding queue.

Fix 3 and you really no longer have a problem with Burlington/Lexington putting excess stress on Waltham. The US 20 rotary, as we've been discussing here, is poorly designed and does lock up during an accident because of heavy volumes. But when it's disrupted the disruptions tend to clear themselves quickly, so while 20 makes regular appearances on "Traffic on the 3's" it's hardly the all-world Level of Service FAIL as the other murder's row of big 128 interchanges and is generally incapable of torpedoing a whole commute. If you de-stress the Route 3 approach that clobbers the whole Lexington stretch, you've reduced the stress on the 20 rotary well below today's rush hour levels. I wouldn't worry too much about Waltham-proper--even before the 20 rotary gets this necessary rebuild for accepting a 117 frontage--when the primary stressors are well outside Waltham, well-known, and have a well-known fix with well-known correcting effects cascading out.

The only other troubleshooting tweak--before even pondering full rebuild of the Pike interchange--is on 128N where Pike and two different Route 30 onramps merge onto the mainline back-to-back-to-back. Those three accel lanes should merge together behind a jersey barrier on their own mini-extension of the frontage ramp to get their acceleration over with then do one final merge onto the mainline that restarts the right travel lane. There's always a short hiccup at the Norumbega St. bridge from the triple-merge that can lead to haphazard sorting stretching far enough north to where people start changing lanes for the Route 20 exit. That recent re-striping of the 128 mainline to lane-drop it to 6 lanes between Pike offramps and Pike onramps worked so well I'm surprised they didn't carry through that fix to the Pike/30 triple-merge. It's literally 1500 ft. of jersey barrier and another re-stripe to perma-fix it and keep the sorting orderly into Waltham.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Agreed. Route 2 is also a problem in spots. Route 2 in Lexington/Arlington is a breeze but Concord can get pretty bad. There are plans to improve the route 2 corridor by getting rid of the rotary and improving the 2A intersection. The bridge over 128 was also rebuilt this past summer. The Alewife area needs to imploded and rebuilt. (I apologize for getting off topic).

The 2 interchange rebuild and bridge replacement are pretty much done. They're doing closeout work right now. That one was always a pretty well-designed interchange in the first place. Concord traffic is about to get way, way better when the Crosby's Corner grade separation project trudges to completion. Then you'll have total expressway-level separation and zero curb cuts between the existing Bedford Rd. light in Lincoln and the Route 126 light by Walden Pond a mile west of Crosby's. All of the cuts by Crosby's have been mashed onto a single-exit frontage road, and all of the side-street curb cuts not directly on the frontage have been clipped into dead-ends absorbing the house and farm driveways that used to be on 2. It's a radical enough improvement that Lincoln is seriously licking its chops at advocacy for separating Bedford St. into a proper interchange and frontageing the Lexington Rd. curb cuts so the expressway is fully contiguous the 4 miles between 128 and 126. Wouldn't take huge money to do Lincoln and close the gap to betterment of traffic everywhere, but moderate $$$ is hard enough to scrounge up when those mega interchange projects are languishing as unfunded mandates.


The other thing that obviously needs to happen is a 128 Fitchburg Line commuter rail station replacing Kendal Green that ties the whole room together around the Polaroid redev, sucks large P&R traffic volumes off 128/20/117 before it slams Waltham inbound, can act as a terminal stop for the 70 bus and various present and future Alewife/128 shuttles, and can anchor future Indigo Line short-turns on the inner Fitchburg. That's not something the public-private coalition around here can sit on their hands passively and wait for MassDOT to do for them. You only need to take one look at New Balance and see how much leverage big business has to expedite transit builds up the chain by taking planning work off MassDOT's plate. Now, obviously this isn't a NB analogue because it won't be fully privately-funded by one monolithic entity. But this is where an officially incorporated 128 business coalition organization comprising the developers here, the engineering consultants who are doing their bidding on all this transpo improvement design, City of Waltham, and landowners adjacent to the probable station site (Biogen and New York Life campuses) can take the bull by the horns. Get every stakeholder on board, streamline the property access Letters of Commitment from Biogen and NYL for use of their access roads and bullet lists of necessary parking/signaling/security remediation, figure out what private funding considerations are worth chucking in from group members (who all have big incentive for their own employee commutes and capital costs for employee parking), and hire a PR firm to speak for the group. It is obviously still going to be a state-funded project because no one stakeholder wields big enough singular leverage over the station property to spur something out of nothing with their own checkbook...but we already are seeing right here how private money talks with transpo improvements. The CR station is the crown jewel of all that once all the more mundane road access work is complete.

FWIW...the link to my crude MS Paint renderings from another thread 3 years ago on a highest bang-for-buck station siting and conversation-starter re: station siting: http://www.archboston.org/community/showthread.php?p=189333#post189333. I don't know if the developers are thinking anything different as I haven't seen them circulate any concepts, but these renders hold up pretty well without alteration 3 years later.

 

[Equilibria]

The only other troubleshooting tweak--before even pondering full rebuild of the Pike interchange--is on 128N where Pike and two different Route 30 onramps merge onto the mainline back-to-back-to-back. Those three accel lanes should merge together behind a jersey barrier on their own mini-extension of the frontage ramp to get their acceleration over with then do one final merge onto the mainline that restarts the right travel lane. There's always a short hiccup at the Norumbega St. bridge from the triple-merge that can lead to haphazard sorting stretching far enough north to where people start changing lanes for the Route 20 exit. That recent re-striping of the 128 mainline to lane-drop it to 6 lanes between Pike offramps and Pike onramps worked so well I'm surprised they didn't carry through that fix to the Pike/30 triple-merge. It's literally 1500 ft. of jersey barrier and another re-stripe to perma-fix it and keep the sorting orderly into Waltham.

They restriped in both directions, yes? Pike and 30E combine on the access road, then merge together, with 128N reduced to 3 lanes as it is in the other direction (MassDOT did NB first, actually). 30W merges in about 1200ft later.

There's a full 2,800ft between the point where 90 merges into the access road until the accel lane from 30W disappears. Are you sure that all of that needs to be separated?

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

They restriped in both directions, yes? Pike and 30E combine on the access road, then merge together, with 128N reduced to 3 lanes as it is in the other direction (MassDOT did NB first, actually). 30W merges in about 1200ft later.

There's a full 2,800ft between the point where 90 merges into the access road until the accel lane from 30W disappears. Are you sure that all of that needs to be separated?

The final blur of merges on 128N is the only part that doesn't completely conform to the logic of the rest of the re-striping. Travel lane #4 picks back up at the mash-up of Pike + Route 30 merge #1 in the middle of the little S-curve the mainline makes. But instead of being subservient to the Pike lane the 30 merge has a super-long dotted accel lane running to the very end of the Pike/frontage lane, causing that lane to mash into the mainline at the very inch travel lane #4 restarts. Then 30 merge #2 is a regular mainline merge too-closely spaced 700 ft. up from this mash-up. It was a very odd design choice to re-stripe it that way, because it always, always induces that little flow hiccup at the Norumbega overpass where people seeing the first US 20 sign in the distance start changing lanes to the right.

I don't understand why they couldn't at minimum paint 30 merge #1 to fold completely into the Pike before the mainline merge. 30 #1 ends up having an absurdly long accel lane off its loop ramp that's considerably longer than the Pike's own merge off its much heavier-volume loop ramp onto the frontage. That discrepancy in length of paint stripes is a total head-scratcher when volumes from 30E out of Weston to 128N are the lowest of any onramp here.

And then there's no compelling reason why 30 merge #2 has to gunk the mainline with a short merge for the higher 30W-to-128N volumes coming from Newton. The Norumbega overpass has a wide enough shoulder to fit a jersey barrier, so they can very easily extend the walled-off frontage another 1000 ft. north and start travel lane #4 after both 30 merges have been digested. That's what would totally eliminate the little flow hiccup over Norumbega and make it so that everyone's traveling the speed limit at restart of travel lane #4. Then when the first US 20 lane-changers start moving right they don't have to deal with traffic that is still residually sorting out its multiple merges at less-than full acceleration.

For how simple it would be to implement any part of this, including the paint-only portion, it's odd that MassHighway bailed out several hundred feet too early on finishing the re-sorting job. Not hugely consequential in the grand scheme...just odd.

 

[jfcarpenter]

So the only part of the road work within the control of the developer [extending the 1265 Main's internal road network to connect with the Prospect Hill network at 5th Avenue] is to be deferred until all of the Mass DOT work on Rt-128 and the Rt-117 bridge is at least underway

Don't hold your breath on this one

The road has already been built, connecting 1265 Main to 5th Avenue. This was done in the Spring, and required building a huge stone embankment and lots of fill to bring the road up to the level of 5th Avenue. It's just a gravel road now, and there are concrete barriers blocking it at 5th Avenue (as well as no curb cut).

The city of Waltham recently gave permission to complete the road and open it during non-rush hour, so I assume that there will be a gate to control access. Work was recently started again. It looks like they are now putting in drainage and getting ready to pave it. There's also lots of stakes in the ground and orange road markings on the 5th Avenue side where I think it will be widened. (There's also a major natural gas pipeline nearby which they have to watch out for so there's Dig Safe markings as well.)

I think the city doesn't the road open all the time due to traffic concerns. During rush hour it would be used as a detour to get on Rt 128 at the Rt 20 intersection, instead of at Winter St/Totten Pond Rd. This would cause lots of additional traffic on Stow St, which apparently has already gotten bad since the Market Basket opened.

 

[matredsoxfan]

The new connector roadway from Border Road to 5th Avenue is making major progress. The road has been completely graded, the first layer of pavement installed and new granite curbing installed on both sides. Light pole bases have also been installed. Work is now ongoing to punch through to 5th Avenue. I recently found a proposal that shows a roundabout being installed at 5th Avenue/Border Rd extension and 230 Third Ave driveway. I have heard the road may be done around Thanksgiving. The road will be closed and gated from 7am-10am and from 3pm-7pm weekdays. There will be electronic signs at both entrances with hours posted.

I have also heard recent talk of possibly allowing commercial vehicles during rush hour (Taxi, Shuttles, Delivery trucks) which would be interesting.

 

[DBM]

Meanwhile, back at the downtown ranch:

Demolition for Kirsch Place, at the corner of Moody & Maple [just south of beloved Moody's Delicatessen and the most competitive section of Moody St.'s "restaurant row"] finished recently:

https://www.facebook.com/kirschplacewaltham/

Per the website, 12 residential units going up there:

http://www.kirschplace.com/residential.html

Here's my tally of the number of new and under development units in "downtown" Waltham (construed as a .5 mile walk or less from where Moody St. crosses Charles River):

Watch Factory: 156 units (opened 2012)
The Merc: 269 units (phased opening 2015-16)
Waltham Landing: 34 units (opened 2016)
20 Cooper St: 264 units (opening in 2017)
210 Moody St.: 16 units (opening in 2018/19?)
Kirsch Place: 12 units (opening in late 2017 I'm guessing)

Just over 750 units in a half-decade or so... not bad for a district a Brandeis professor once lamented to me was "a really depressing place--like something you'd see way up in upstate New York".

Now if only someone could do something about Mayor "Monorail" McCarthy. ugh....

 

[matredsoxfan]

Meanwhile, back at the downtown ranch:

Demolition for Kirsch Place, at the corner of Moody & Maple [just south of beloved Moody's Delicatessen and the most competitive section of Moody St.'s "restaurant row"] finished recently:

https://www.facebook.com/kirschplacewaltham/

Per the website, 12 residential units going up there:

http://www.kirschplace.com/residential.html

Here's my tally of the number of new and under development units in "downtown" Waltham (construed as a .5 mile walk or less from where Moody St. crosses Charles River):

Watch Factory: 156 units (opened 2012)
The Merc: 269 units (phased opening 2015-16)
Waltham Landing: 34 units (opened 2016)
20 Cooper St: 264 units (opening in 2017)
210 Moody St.: 16 units (opening in 2018/19?)
Kirsch Place: 12 units (opening in late 2017 I'm guessing)

Just over 750 units in a half-decade or so... not bad for a district a Brandeis professor once lamented to me was "a really depressing place--like something you'd see way up in upstate New York".

Now if only someone could do something about Mayor "Monorail" McCarthy. ugh....

I live around the corner from this and have been taking pictures so far https://www.flickr.com/photos/142034736@N03/albums/72157675330065880

 

[tjrileymass]

Brothers' Marketplace is coming to the corner of Main and Moody (in the Merc). I was originally hoping for restaurant in this space but this might be even better for activating this area.

Haven't found a press release but Robert Logan from the Waltham City Council is confirming in this tweet:

https://twitter.com/RLoganW9/status/796898860702531585