Even as a Newton city task force prepares to give Mayor David B. Cohen its recommendations for traffic and infrastructure improvements to Newton Centre, an impending MBTA bridge reconstruction project could close a key route in and out of the business district for much of 2008, officials said.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has determined that rebuilding the 100-year-old Langley Road bridge is a top safety priority, and is prepared to begin the reconstruction effort this spring, officials said.
Situated on the southeast edge of the business district, the bridge allows Green Line trolleys on the MBTA's Riverside Line to pass underneath Langley Road as they pull in and out of Newton Centre Station. Langley Road is a heavily traveled route between Newton Centre and Route 9, particularly for commuters and for shoppers at the Chestnut Hill and Atrium malls.
"It's certainly going to create a lot of traffic and a lot of detours," Ward 6 Alderman at Large Kenneth Parker said last week. "There are going to be a lot of impacts."
MBTA officials said the design work for the $2.3 million project is complete, and construction, with its diversion of traffic from Langley Road, is expected to begin in May. Officials recently determined that replacing the bridge - built in 1907 and last rebuilt in 1959 - would be more cost-effective than trying to repair and maintain it any longer, they said.
The stretch of Langley Road will likely be closed until at least October, said Ed Hunter, the MBTA's director of construction. The authority is also planning to shut down the trolley line on five weekends for the most critical phases of the demolition and reconstruction project, beginning with Memorial Day weekend. Trolley riders will be diverted to buses while the line is closed, officials said.
Charles Eisenberg, chairman of the Newton Centre Task Force, said he believes the project will be disruptive to the Union Street business area and the residential neighborhood on the other side of the trolley tracks.
"It's not going to be fun," he said.
Eisenberg said that the closure could also push more cars onto already heavily used routes, such as Beacon, Centre, and Parker streets, exacerbating the traffic and parking problems identified by the task force.
One major issue, he said, is that the Newton Centre business district is both a popular destination and a major crossroads for traffic heading across the city. Because the traffic is so chaotic, potential customers of the area's shops and restaurants often do not perceive the area as pedestrian-friendly, he said.
While parking is also perceived as a problem, Eisenberg said, the task force found few instances where the available spaces in the area were filled. Instead, drivers intimidated by the thought of walking across the center limited their parking search to spaces near their intended destination.
"The problem is that people don't want to walk more than half a block," he said.
The task force's report is expected to contain several recommendations on improving the pedestrian experience in the business district, Eisenberg said. The group is working on getting its recommendations to the mayor early in the new year.
Merchants close to the bridge, meanwhile, had a mixed reaction to news of its impending closure.
"It's going to be a disaster," said Rebecca Slosberg, manager of Salon55 on Union Street, one of the businesses closest to the bridge. "The traffic is already bad . . . and this is really going to cause problems."
But John Dewar & Co. general manager Bill Rodden, who has a view of the bridge from the front window of the popular specialty butcher shop on Beacon Street, said the reconstruction project is a necessary evil.
"The traffic in Newton Centre does get terrible, and that intersection does get bottled up every night on the drive home," he said, "but you can't have the thing falling down."
