State nearly set to advertise project to add traffic lights to dangerous Roslindale parkway intersection, but questions remain

DCR planners told the Longfellow Area Neighborhood Association last night they hope to go out to bid this spring for a contractor to add traffic signals and do related intersection changes where Walter Street meets Centre Street in Roslindale.

But operators of a day care and food pantry at the intersection say the proposal would create more problems than it would solve, at least for them, because the proposed stop line for drivers heading towards Dedham would be just a couple feet away from the church's main driveway onto Centre, effectively blocking anybody trying to leave, especially at rush hour.

DCR planners Patrice Kish, Jason Santos and Val Soroka said their plans are 100% complete and now included dedicated pedestrian-crossing lights so that pedestrians can cross from one side of the intersection to the other without worrying about cars with "concurrent" access to make a turn. Planners told Longfellow residents they hope to formally request bids by June 30, with a goal of starting construction by Labor Day - to be completed by 2026.

Michelle McDougall, executive director of the Little Amigos daycare next to the Trinity Lutheran Church, says she supports the basic idea of the project. She said she would love to be able to safely walk her kids across what is now basically an impassable traffic chasm on a field trip to the Arboretum.

But with the proposed stop line right at her driveway, it would be virtually impossible for parents picking up their children at rush hour to get out. And there are issues getting to the daycare and the church from Roslindale or point south: Somebody could drive up to Allandale Street and make a U-turn, except that intersection is marked to prohibit U-turns - and, in any case, the short turn lane there often backs up at rush hour.

One possible solution - connecting the church parking lot to the one at the neighboring Sophia Snow senior-citizen complex and its driveway, on the other side of the intersection - failed because Sophia Snow expressed concerns about the potential impact of more cars on its property affecting its elderly residents.

The planners said they would meet again with the traffic consultants hired for the project to see if there is a solution to the problem, which they said they had not heard before - although they acknowledged that the original project manager for the project was no longer working on it.

They told the neighborhood group that they have secured most of the agreements they need with the city, the Arnold Arboretum and the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center to begin the work. Final approval is still required from the Boston Conservation Commission - because part of the project includes land near Bussey Brook, which crosses under Walter Street from behind the Hebrew Center to flow through the Arboretum, - but they said they are not expecting any holdups there because they have been working closely with the commission for years on what has now become a nearly ten-year project to do something about the intersection.