Tisbury selectmen Tuesday voted unanimously to create a Beach Road design review committee for the long-awaited and much-discussed $2.4 million state transportation project. Construction is expected to begin in spring 2018. The committee will include selectmen chairman Melinda Loberg, town administrator Jay Grande, Department of Public Works (DPW) director Ray Tattersall, a member of the planning board, and Tisbury Water Works superintendent Paul Wohler.
Mr. Grande said the goal was to have a group of town representatives that could address the issues and concerns of the project as the plan progresses to a 75 percent design, which MassDOT aims to achieve by the end of the year.
Selectmen asked that conservation commission agent Jane Varkonda and MVC senior planner Bill Veno serve as “ex officio members.”
Last week, following up on a 25 percent design meeting with MassDOT, selectmen and the planning board sent a letter to MassDOT highlighting an extensive list of issues and requests that included wider sidewalks and a better drainage system for storm water.
Other issues involved the location of utility poles, curb cut widths where the sidewalk meets the pavement, the width of the shared-use path, what kind of landscaping would be done, and the inconsistent speed limits on the half-mile stretch of road — selectmen requested it be lowered to 20 miles per hour and made uniform. Both boards said they wanted to make sure the location of the crosswalk by the Net Result would remain.
“The more inviting we make it and easy to be able to walk [on Beach Road], the more we’re going to be inviting commerce into town,” Mr. Israel said.
