'Death Alley' Danvers/Peabody Stretch Of Route 114 Workshop Set

PEABODY, MA — The state Department of Transportation is looking for feedback from Danvers and Peabody residents on safety changes made to a dangerous stretch of Route 114 ahead of more substantial work scheduled on what has been called the "Death Alley" road corridor on the North Shore.

Transportation officials recently talked with the Danvers Select Board and Peabody City Council about the Tier 1 changes made this fall, with Tier 2 changes planned for spring and summer.

The workshop seeking feedback on the progress and impacts of the changes will be held on Dec. 13 at 6 p.m. at the Torigian Senior Center in Peabody.

"Residents and stakeholders will have the opportunity to discuss safety issues and opportunities for Route 114 with the Project Team utilizing maps and small breakout groups to facilitate discussion," MassDOT said.

There will be no online or virtual access to this workshop. Those who cannot attend are welcome to provide feedback at route114safety-peabodydanvers@dot.state.ma.us or through a project survey on the project website here.

The road that connects Route 1 in Danvers and Route 128 in Peabody was the scene, as of December 2021, of 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.

A state Road Safety Audit process conducted with state and local officials in the spring of 2022 documented 285 crashes over a three-year period, including four recent fatal crashes.

Tier 1 changes this fall included optimizing traffic signal timing to increase motorist and pedestrian safety at intersections, updating warning and regulatory signage to increase visibility, improving and adding accessible crosswalks and installing new pavement markings at select
locations along the corridor to provide a safer driving experience.

More substantial changes, such as the narrowing of lanes and shortening stretches of turning lanes that a safety data study determined were often being used as travel lanes, will be implemented in the spring and summer of 2023.

Mass DOT Project Manager Michael Trepanier said at the Danvers Select Board meeting in October that because of the public outcry and the extreme number of crashes with serious injury on the road in recent years, MassDOT was charged with coming up with solutions that could reduce crashes in the short term as a potential more major reconstruction — such as a divided road, which Trepanier said at the time would be "more of a five- to 10-, frankly 20-year-type of project" — are studied long term.

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