Connecting a Community with Complete Streets
Samuel W. Gregorio, PE, PTOE, RSP1, Senior Traffic Engineer, TEC, Inc., (left) and Jonathan S. Shikes, PE, Senior Transportation Engineer, TEC, Inc. (right)
Situated off the western slope of Mount Wachusett, the town of Hubbardston, Massachusetts is a warm and inviting community. With less than 5,000 residents, the population has steadily climbed over recent decades as more small businesses and recreational opportunities have continued to flourish. Being a small town, many of the community services and businesses are tucked into a single stretch of the primary thoroughfare like a bullseye in the center of town.
The town of Hubbardston identified this primary thoroughfare, a ¾-mile section of Route 68 (Gardner Road/Main Street), for Complete Streets improvements. Immediately north and south of the town center and project limits, Route 68 is a wide, principal arterial corridor with speed
limits posted at 45-50 miles per hour, including observed speeds well in excess of the posted speed. The plan was driven by the town’s vision to revitalize its center for local businesses and provide access to key services such as the Curtis Recreational Fields, Hubbardston Library, the Hubbardston Center School, and the Town Hall. The revitalization would need to meet the needs of the community where the goal of the project would calm vehicular traffic entering and exiting the town while making it more attractive and safer for other modes of transportation.
TEC assisted the town in identifying the key transportation objections and providing planning services to recognize the most practical and constructable forms of each mode of transportation through the various cross-sectional challenges of the corridor. This detailed planning supported the project with its approval by MassDOT to be funded through the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP).
Early conceptual improvement plan of Route 68 corridor
The project runs from the Curtis Recreational Fields to the north to the intersection of Main Street / Brigham Street / Elm Street to the south. In addition to formulating a standard curb-to-curb cross-section within each segment, the project introduces bicycle accommodations along the entire project limits split between on-road bicycle lanes and/or an off-road shared use path. Each facility is connected through bicycle ramps to achieve a seamless travel experience by both school-aged and recreational riders. The project also introduces and/or enhances the pedestrian experience with the construction of new sidewalks (or shared use path) along both sides of Route 68; each raised from the roadway with curbing to provide vertical separation from the vehicular traffic stream. The expanded Right-of-Way allowed the project to maintain grass buffers to one side of the roadway from the prior cross-section to keep the small-town feel.
The project introduced new electronic traffic technologies to the corridor including five Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFBs) at reconstructed and new crossings along the project corridor, as well as reconstruction of the school zone flasher assemblies in advance of the Hubbardston Center School. The project also included sidewalk curb extensions, overall roadway narrowing, high-visibility crosswalks, and on-street parking lanes to serve as traffic calming elements to the corridor.
RRFBs crossing Main Street
The construction for the project was completed in the summer of 2024 following more than seven years of planning, permitting, design, and construction. TEC and the town of Hubbardston will continue to evaluate the improvements along the Route 68 corridor to evaluate the effectiveness of the traffic calming elements and the user experience of the bicycle and pedestrian facilities between the community services and businesses. Following construction, TEC utilized the project as a test run for the company’s drone imagery capabilities. The imagery was shared with the town of Hubbardston for public use.
Aerial view of corridor improvements