Mary Parsons ENF Comment

Comments: ENF

On April 24,1997 I had sent in comments on the ENF. There are some changes that need to be made to my comments:

Iii pg. 6

D-7. Please change "what is the impact of a fourth road going over Old Swamp River?" to; What is the impact of a fourth MAJOR roadway going over Old Swamp River? Also, there are five lesser used roads crossing Old Swamp River, making a grand total of nine roadways that cross over Old Swamp River (forest St. in Rockland, Sharpe St. in Hingham, Ralph Talbot St., Elm St. and Pleasant St. in Weymouth). There is debris at the Sharpe St. and Ralph Talbot St. overpasses that may restrict the flow of water. The storm drains on Sharpe St. are right above where Swamp River passes under. Is there a possibility that surface water, from the road, is draining into the river?

Iii pg. 8

F-4 Please change Ward St. To Warren Ave.

iii pg. 8

F-5 Please change Ward St. to Warren Ave.

Iii pg. 9

G-2 please change 65 Ldn to 65 decibel level.

Comments: April 29,1997 meeting

At the April 29,1997 meeting someone commented on Old Swamp River feeding into a secondary drinking water supply for Weymouth (Whitman's Pond) and measures should be taken to protect that portion of Swamp River that is on the Naval Air Station from contamination. Whitman's Pond is a little bit more than just a secondary drinking water supply. Water from Whitman's Pond is routinely pumped up to Great Pond in So. Weymouth to keep the water level of Great Pond high.

There is a company (Merriman, Division of Precision Castparts Corp.) in South Shore Industrial Park in Hingham that has been fined for numerous violations of environmental regulations, including the destruction of wetlands. The company had been dumping waste containing PHENOLS and LEAD into a wetland that forms the Old Swamp River that leads to Whitman's Pond. This company is a chronic violator of environmental regulations and is located in the area where the Rte. 3 access road will be built.

If this becomes a state road it will have to meet the state's six criteria for being built, one of which is that the road has to be fully accessible. The Rte. 3 access road will open up land adjacent to Merriman Corp., which could put the Old Swamp River, Whitman's Pond and the aquifer underneath the river at risk of more possible pollution from new companies locating on the land adjacent to the access road.

The Hingham Planning Board had approved plans for a possible MALL to be built on the land adjacent to the Rte. 3 access road. What impact will this have on the wetlands in the area? Rizzo Assoc. has included this mall in its Access Improvements Assessment because of its close proximity to the Rte. 3 access and it could generate up to 1600 more vehicle trips during afternoon peak hour. How many vehicle trips will the Rte. 3 access road generate? How many vehicle trips will the development of the Air Station generate onto Weymouth St., Sharpe St., VFW Drive Highway, Resevoir Park Rd., Union St., (Rockland) and Hingham St. Rockland? Can The roads handle the build-out that the Reuse Committee wants?

Steve Thomas from VHB pointed out the numerous places that car accidents on Rte. 18 occur. He makes it sound like the accidents will be reduced if a Rte. 3 access road is put in. Rte. 18 is not responsible for accidents, in-attentive drivers are. The Massachusetts Highway Dept. has approved a project to make Rte. 18, between Rte. 3 and Park St. a four lane highway. The Stetson Building is basically on the street at the Middle St. intersection. I read somewhere that this would involve considerable land taking and would only have limited improvements. Rte. 3 is not the cause of traffic congestion on Rte. 18. It is the build-out on Rte. 18 that causes the traffic congestion. The Stetson Building, South Shore Hospital and related buildings, Doctors offices, various businesses and coffee shops are the cause of heavy traffic on Rte. 18. The fact that there are no plans to widen Rte. 18 south of Columbian Square bares this out.

Why didn't the Reuse Committee have Rizzo Assoc. look at putting a Rte. 3 interchange at Pleasant St. East Weymouth in their scope of work? This would relieve traffic at exit 16 A&B. People heading for North Weymouth and East Weymouth would be able to get off at the new interchange instead of everyone having to get off at exit 16 A&B. The traffic would be more evenly distributed.

Rte. 228 main St. Hingham, starting at Queen Anne's Corner should be looked at for future widening to four lanes in the travel demand model suggested by Rizzo Assoc. It is the one major roadway that they omitted. Queen Anne's Corner was studied years ago and the only reason it did not get an F rating was because the traffic inched along, so it got a D rating. The study was done so long ago that it has been all but forgotten and still there is no improvement in sight for this corner.

Rte. 139 and Rte. 123 need to be looked at as well since most of the town of Rockland will be boxed in between the Rte. 3 access road, Rte. 3 Rte. 18, Rte. 58, Rte. 139 and Rte. 123. What effect is the traffic generated by this site going to have on the air quality and bodies of surface water (Great Pond, whitman's Pond, Accord Pond and the Abington - Rockland Joint Water Works Reservoir) that are along side these major highways?

The Reuse Committee has in its plan residential housing for the town of Rockland. The Town has indicated that residential housing is unacceptable because of the negative fiscal impact to the town of Rockland and most importantly because we are on a year round water ban. The water dept. has said that we could not supply water to more than 30 single- family homes. The housing that we really need is federal housing for the elderly. We have 187 people on a waiting list for housing. The area where the NASPC has planned to put housing for the elderly is on Salem St. Rockland, which is a short cut at rush hours through the town of Rockland. A more acceptable place is on Oregon St., where there is no traffic because Union St. is a dead end in that area. The people who are on the Reuse Committee do not live in North Rockland, and therefore, do not know the impacts of the changes that they propose and I'm not sure if they even know what the area looks like.

Yours Truly,

Mary A. Parsons

COMPARE (Citizens Opposing the Megamall and Proposed Access Road Extension)
Box 890024 Weymouth, MA 02189
[email protected]

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