Fix The Landham Road intersection? You Need To Tell The MPO

SUDBURY, MA—When asked some time ago on our Sudbury Patch Facebook page which streets and intersections residents found the least safe, one of the most popular answers was the Landham Road intersection.

It doesn't go unnoticed by officials.

Selectman Dan Carty took action on roads in Sudbury by attending the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting, and walked away with what he writes were some "un-fun facts" that he shared in the most recent Board of Selectmen newsletter:

• Over a recent 10 year period, there were 170 accidents at this intersection, including a fatality in 2011.
• The crash rate is nearly double that of the typical intersection in our district - 1.11 per million vehicles vs. 0.6 per million.

Why can't it just be fixed?

"Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as the town asking the Commonwealth for money," wrote Carty. "Projects like these are subject to review and approval by the MPO’s Transportation on the MPO website."

“Each year, approximately 150 transportation infrastructure projects, collectively costing more than
one billion dollars, are submitted as candidates to receive funding through the Boston Region MPO’s rolling, five-year capital investment program, the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP)."

Carty said in his update that town leaders hope for the project to happen closer to 2019 than 2023, and are advocating accordingly, but that "comments from the public to the MPO also really matter."

As Town leaders, we certainly want this project to happen closer to 2019 than 2023 and are advocating

"They could be the difference in advancing us past another project and hopefully help make Sudbury safer by getting this project constructed sooner," he wrote. "Borrowing wording from another advocacy group
in our region, we need to continue to make support of the Landham Road intersection overwhelming, and make our elected and appointed officials’ job easier to ensure that the Landham Road project stays on course and that it doesn’t get pushed to the back of the transportation project line.

Submit comments to the MPO here.

Photo via town of Sudbury