Lori Trahan, others celebrate infrastructure funding in Lancaster

By: Sara Arnold

LANCASTER — By the time you’re eating your Thanksgiving turkey next year, Lancaster will have safer roads.

On Sept. 27, Rep. Lori Trahan announced nearly $4.8 million in federal funding for improvements to intersections along Lunenburg Road and Main Street. She was joined by state Sen. John Cronin, state Rep. Meg Kilcoyne and Massachusetts Department of Transportation resident engineer Jeff Goyne.

Town Administrator Kate Hodges and members of the Select Board were also expected to attend but missed the event due to a last-minute conflict.

The event, which took place at the intersection outside of the Luther Burbank and Mary Rowlandson School buildings, was at a single stop sign on a busy three-way intersection that currently makes up one of the intersections being upgraded. Trahan said it was unsafe for the kids who attended the schools as well as drivers and reiterated the importance of increasing public safety by funding these additional upgrades at the “dangerous setups” of both intersections.

“Lancaster parents rely on these intersections to get their kids to school on time at the Luther Burbank and the Mary Rowlandson School building, and to get themselves to work on time,” Trahan said. “But the way the intersections are set up right now is dangerous, and it leads to preventable accidents and heavy traffic delays. With two main roads at each intersection, it’s easy to see how this improvement is long overdue.”

“The project covers new traffic lights, new directional signs, wider lanes to help with traffic flow and make pedestrian crossings safer, a new drainage trunkline, a pedestrian island, accessible ramps, enhanced bike lanes, and multi-use pathways with grass buffers. The project also includes freshly paved roads, sidewalks, and curbs,” she said.

The funding was secured through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passing the federal legislature as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a $110 billion dollar package to repair and rebuild roads, bridges and other major projects. Of that, Massachusetts will receive at least $4.2 billion for road improvements, including these Lancaster intersections.

Construction in the area began this past summer, but the influx of federal cash will make those improvements cheaper for the town and state, while also making the intersections of Route 117 and Route 70 safer and more accessible for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists.

Federal funding will now cover 98% of the total cost of the upgrades.

Trahan said that infrastructure has been underfunded in the region for decades by the federal government, which now needs to foot the bill for major upgrades. She said the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is a necessary “course correction” to return to the history of the feds investing in local infrastructure and improving the lives of entire communities like Lancaster.

“This project has been sitting on MassDOT’s STIP for years waiting to secure the necessary funding,” she said.

Later, Trahan added that many communities have been forced to take a “Band-Aid approach” with their local infrastructure projects, “kicking the can down the road because they can’t afford the full cost necessary for a permanent upgrade.” She said the work already being done by MassDOT is important, but the federal funding allows for more “drastic,” longer-term upgrades without affecting Lancaster’s budget for other infrastructure needs in the community, which is “a big deal.”

“The additional funding is critical for everyone; it will allow this project to be completed without (further) strapping our cash-strapped town,” said Lancaster Select Board member Alix Turner.

The federal funds will also allow the state to reallocate significant money to spend on other infrastructure needs in the town and region that have yet to be awarded federal funds.

“This project is another example of the outstanding partnership between our federal, state, and municipal leaders in the region,” Cronin said. Trahan agreed and called it “an entire team effort” at all levels of government.

The road work is planned to be completed by Thanksgiving 2023.