Peabody/Danvers Route 114 Long-Term Redesign Public Forum Set

PEABODY, MA — A public meeting to discuss and solicit feedback regarding proposed long-term improvements to what residents and officials have called a "death valley" and "suicide" stretch of Route 114 in Danvers and Peabody will be held early next month.

The state Department of Transportation will host the meeting on Aug. 1 at 6 p.m. at the Torigian Senior Center in Peabody.

The meeting follows the completion of "tier 2" construction on the busy road that was designed to calm speeding and the ability to pass through installing flex posts as part of a new traffic pattern.

The changes were derived from the Road Safety Audit that the MassDOT conducted in response to the December 2021 public meeting in which speakers charged there had been 16 fatal accidents, 1,627 non-fatal accidents and 3,260 property damage accidents totaling more than 5,400 total accidents on the Peabody stretch of the roadway alone in the previous 19 years.

MassDOT implemented a two-tier system of short- and mid-term improvements along the corridor until a permanent realignment of the road could potentially be discussed and implemented.

On Aug. 1, the study team is set to share an overview of the long-term study background, review existing work and solicit additional feedback on the next steps.

The study will analyze the possibility of installing a median strip, among other safety measures.

Tier 1 and Tier 2 were part of $2.5 million in existing MassDOT district-wide maintenance contracts.

DOT officials said the Aug. 1 meeting will be accessible and that language services will be made available, upon request, free of charge.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)