Road work ahead

The huge job of widening Route 128 for safety will take another 8 years

(Bill Greene/Globe staff) Construction along Route 128 in Canton, one of seven communities along a 14.3-mile stretch of the highway that is less than halfway through a widening project now in its sixth year.

The reconstruction of the southwestern stretch of Route 128, now in its sixth year, bears certain resemblances to another big Massachusetts highway project, recently concluded.

Like Boston's Big Dig, the widening of Route 128 is taking a long time.

Motorists can be forgiven for thinking of the highway as a never-ending construction project. But an end point does exist: By mid-2016, the work should be done and the highway will have two added lanes, one on each side, from Route 24 in Randolph to Route 9 in Wellesley.

"It's a massive undertaking," said Susan McQuaid, president of the Neponset Valley Chamber of Commerce. "When people hear 2016, it sounds like a long ways away, but you have to consider the scope of the project - from Wellesley to Randolph. It's a long stretch of road."

The 14.3-mile widening project, which cuts through seven communities, is designed to improve safety on the notoriously congested highway - although drive times will not necessarily improve - and return the breakdown lane to its original purpose. Motorists now can legally travel in the breakdown lane at peak hours.

A separate but related project is the planned reconfiguration of the interchange in Canton where Interstates 93 and 95 begin their shared paths with 128, running in opposite directions but both heading north.

The looping tangle of asphalt, which now requires motorists to weave and squeeze to get through the junction, is being redesigned as a three-level interchange intended to allow smoother transitions and much longer stretches in which to merge with highway-speed traffic.

The state Executive Office of Transportation's timetable for the revamped interchange calls for construction to start in 2011 and be finished in 2015.

The costliest part of the Route 128 project is expected to be the reconstruction of five bridges in Needham and Wellesley. The state Highway Department estimates the price tag will reach $125 million, with construction scheduled to start in 2012 and end in 2015.

A full interchange is to be added at Kendrick Street in Needham. The bridges to be reconstructed over Route 128 are on Kendrick Street and Highland Avenue in Needham. The 128 bridges over Central Avenue in Needham and Route 9 in Wellesley are also slated to be rebuilt, as is a railroad bridge over 128 in Needham.

While adding two lanes to a highway might sound like a simple matter of clearing 12 feet on either side, it is a complicated operation, officials say.

When the main part of Route 128 was built in the 1950s, the first beltway around Boston went over or under all of the older spoke-like roads jutting out from the Boston hub - not to mention several railroad lines, and the Neponset and Charles rivers.

As a result, there are 22 bridges that need to be reconstructed so they can stretch across the wider highway.

As Route 128 arcs through the southwest suburbs, it runs along the Dedham-Westwood line, crossing in rapid succession routes 1, 1A, 109, and 135, before angling northward and passing over Great Plain Avenue on the Dedham-Needham line and busy Highland Avenue in Needham.

Already completed is expansion of the Route 128 bridge over the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's rail lines in Westwood.

This summer, construction is underway on highway bridges over the Neponset River in Canton and University Avenue in Westwood, and the routes 1 and 1A bridges over 128 on the Dedham-Westwood line. As sections of the road are finished, the new lanes will be opened to motorists.

Improving safety, not a faster commute, is the project's main objective, according to state officials.

"Once the additional travel lane has been constructed and open to traffic, driving in the breakdown lane during peak travel hours will be eliminated to restore a safe breakdown lane," said Adam Hurtubise, spokesman for the Executive Office of Transportation. "Essentially this is the purpose of the whole Route 128 add-a-lane project."

No one is promising a faster ride. New lanes tend to draw new traffic, filling the roadway - often very soon.

"You can add lanes until the cows come home, but in the long run they just fill up," said Marc Draisen, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, the regional planning agency for Greater Boston.

Draisen said these lanes will be in especially high demand because of two big new shopping centers - Westwood Station in Westwood and Legacy Place in Dedham - opening right off 128.

Southbound traffic on Route 128 may also find little relief from the new lane because of the bottleneck looming in Braintree, where 128/93 and Route 3 converge and the Southeast Expressway heads north to Boston. No major improvements are planned for this junction in the foreseeable future.

Conditions on Route 128 are so bad now that even some advocates of smart growth and mass transit see value in adding new lanes to the road.

"We clearly would rather see the money spent on public transportation, but there is no denying that 128 is congested and needs some relief," said Richard Arena, president of the Boston-based Association for Public Transportation.

Another problem for the project's designers is that Route 128 cuts through sensitive environmental areas, including the Charles River marshes, the Fowl Meadow conservation area along the Neponset River, and the state's Blue Hills Reservation.

The roadwork has pluses and minuses for the environment, according to Ian Cooke, executive director of the Neponset River Watershed Association.

A wider road will mean more runoff into the surrounding wetlands, Cooke said. But when the new interchange at I-95 is finished, the state will convert some 35 acres that is now paved into conservation land.

Also, MassHighway recently built a dirt trail along the side of the Neponset River where it flows under 128 on the Canton-Westwood line. The path is designed to be a passageway for wildlife and humans.

"The trail is a good thing," said Cooke. "It's unclear whether wildlife are using it, but wildlife could use it."

Robert Preer can be reached at preer@globe.com.