Signs of hope for Route 9 cure
Call it post-Big Dig syndrome.
The biggest highway project in US history has wound down, and planners and politicians in Boston's western suburbs say they see a chance to finally get Route 9 - one of the state's busiest and most congested regional economic corridors - on the state's transportation priority list.
There are two separate efforts afoot to get a big-picture highway study funded before development causes gridlock for the region. The Metropolitan Area Planning Council plans early next year to launch a $50,000 study of Route 9 from the Route 128 interchange in Wellesley to the Shrewsbury-Worcester line.
In the meantime, state Senator Karen Spilka, an Ashland Democrat, is lobbying the Executive Office of Transportation to put a comprehensive study of Route 9 - probably to cost in the millions of dollars - in next year's capital budget.
If that fails, Spilka said, she'll argue for a version to be included in the Senate's spending plan.
It appears Route 9 is finally ready for its close-up. The highway, lifeline to six of the state's top 10 publicly traded companies, received national attention last month during the opening of the Natick Collection luxury mall, home of the state's first Nordstrom department store and dozens of other high-end retailers.
As a nod to the growing economic importance of the corridor, the state's Office of Business Development recently awarded a $1.4 million grant for highway traffic mitigation, so the MathWorks Inc. can add 600 jobs to its Natick headquarters near the junction of Route 27.
The overburdened roadway also emerged as a key topic in discussions surrounding last week's vote to increase tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike, a move that could dump extra traffic on alternate routes into Boston. And at a regional transportation forum in Natick several weeks ago, suburbanites peppered Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray, who has said that addressing the state's $19 billion transportation infrastructure deficit is a major priority of the Patrick administration, with questions about when Route 9 would see a full-scale overhaul.
"The state is at a critical moment of setting transportation priorities for the next 30 to 40 years," said Marc Draisen, director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, with the Big Dig seemingly completed. "It's a natural outgrowth of the ending of such a massive project to look around and think what to do next, and where do we go from here?"
The planning council's $50,000 study is being conducted in cooperation with its sister office, the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission. It will probably focus on the traffic impact of current and projected construction development, and offer building and development scenarios, Draisen said.
"Certainly there's going to be more development on Route 9, and we'd like to see if we can figure out ways to mitigate it in advance," he said.
Specifics will be determined after meeting with planning officials from participating towns, Draisen said, and study results would be used to help persuade the state to launch and fund a major, long-term Route 9 improvement plan.
At the State House, Spilka said getting Route 9 on the Legislature's radar screen has been an uphill fight - she's elbow-to-elbow with other politicians claiming their region's traffic trouble spots should take precedence.
"It may take a year or two to get the support," Spilka said. "But I think we shouldn't take the highway piecemeal - just fixing this intersection or that one on the local level. It's the most effective use of our tax dollars for the state to do a full and comprehensive study of Route 9."
But Draisen said the Metropolitan Area Planning Council study offers an opportunity for local planners to get the ball rolling. His survey will begin in Wellesley and head westward to Worcester, omitting limited-access sections running through Brookline and Newton.
Draisen said his agency's focus on the west-of-128 stretch is mainly a function of expense and practicality.
That swath of Route 9 is already plenty unwieldy, with its list of traffic challenges including the proposed MathWorks project; the troubled intersection of Route 9, the Mass. Pike and Interstate 495; fast-growing Southborough, which is considering two Chapter 40B housing projects and a 2.2-million-square-foot expansion of
Regional officials cheered the recent focus on finally fixing the highway.
A comprehensive map of permitted projects and potential development would be helpful for long-term planning, said Paul Matthews, executive director of the Westborough-based 495/MetroWest Corridor Partnership.
"It often happens that the last developer to the table is asked to pay for intersection improvements, when we should be doing a broader level of review," he said.
Patrick Reffett, Natick's community development director, said he hopes the efforts by Spilka and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council would "give us some viable outcomes and next steps."
"The real key in making the corridor work is improving the intersections," said Reffett.
"The state has not kept up with Route 9 the way it should have and now the infrastructure must be fixed to allow the economic development we need. We know where congestion and friction happens. What we need is an improvement strategy."
Erica Noonan can be reached at enoonan@globe.com.
