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Paving projects on sections of Eastern Avenue, East Main Street and School House Road that balled up traffic in Gloucester this week should be done by the busy Memorial Day weekend, according to the mayor’s office and the city’s Public Works director.
Early in the week, the road work created detours at the lights at the Route 128 Extension and Eastern Avenue, leading to backups as motorists had drive around.
“I can appreciate people’s frustration with traffic,” said Public Works Director Mike Hale, adding that the section of Eastern Avenue from the lights to Marina Drive was paved as of Wednesday afternoon. This project took 2 1/2 days, he said.
“It is great to see these completed paving projects across the City and I am happy to see these in particular wrapping up in time for Memorial Day Weekend,” said Mayor Greg Verga in an email late Wednesday afternoon. “I know these have caused disruption and upset in East Gloucester and we will do better communicating these projects to the public in the future. There is a lot that goes into paving projects and our window is short, so I am glad these are finishing up quickly and appreciate everyone’s patience.”
The city had taken to Facebook on Monday to alert residents to the paving work, warning that the inbound lane to Rockport would be detoured to Bass Avenue in the morning “and switched to the opposite direction in the afternoon to facilitate the heaviest flow of traffic. Please plan accordingly.”
Plum Street resident Thomas Hauck emailed the Times to say that it took him nearly an hour on Tuesday to drive from the post office on Dale Avenue to Stop & Shop on Thatcher Road. Leaving the post office at 12:10 p.m., with Rogers Street jammed up, he wound up on the Route 128 Extension heading toward Eastern Avenue. He noted that School House Road leading to Gloucester Crossing from the Blackburn Rotary was also closed.
“Traffic was at a standstill!” he wrote, finally arriving at Stop & Shop at 1 p.m. He said as far as he knew, “there was no advance warning of this massive disruption.” He noted a lack of police officers directing traffic.
Hale said Wednesday paving would move to a section of East Main Street from Bass Avenue to Sayward Street that afternoon. He said with cities and towns all competing for the same scant paving resources, it makes sense to do more than one road in the city at a time.
He said when completed, the paving projects mean some heavily traveled roads would be in good condition for the next 15 to 20 years. Still, Hale said he was “not discounting people’s frustration with communications.”
Some drivers took to the city’s Facebook page to say they had spent an hour in traffic. One person commented: “I was patient from the rotary to the lights today … for an hour.” Another commenter noted it took her an hour to go from Blackburn Circle to Rocky Neck, a journey of less than 3 miles that should take about 7 minutes, according to Google Maps.
Residents asked why two of the three main roads to East Gloucester and Rockport were closed at the same time.
During a drive around the area where the paving was taking place on Wednesday, it took this writer about 10 minutes to drive down the Route 128 Extension to the Bass Avenue lights.
Around 12:30 p.m., crews were paving in the vicinity of Jeff’s Variety and Deli at 71 Eastern Ave. and there was no left turn allowed onto Eastern Avenue. One lane of traffic from the direction of Rockport was open. Traffic was detoured to Bass Avenue and Thatcher Road to Marina Drive. Hartz Street was closed as a cut-through to Eastern Avenue because it emptied out where the paving was taking place.
At the gateway to East Gloucester around 12:40 p.m. Wednesday, the stretch of East Main Street between Bass Avenue and Sayward Street had been milled and cars negotiated the raised castings. This stretch had been closed for a time on Tuesday afternoon.
The city posted on Facebook that for Wednesday, this section of East Main Street would be open in the morning and closed in the afternoon for paving. Hale said one qualifier for the work to get done that day was the ability for trucks to be able to get to the asphalt plant and back, something that might cause a delay. Otherwise, Hale said he expected the paving to be done Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Jeff’s Variety and Deli wrote to its customers on Facebook: “Yes, we are open during the road work going on. Can’t get to us — did you know we use Delivery Shark for delivery? We appreciate your understanding but it’s out of our control. We are hoping it will be wrapped up by Friday.”
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714,or at [email protected].
