In Tisbury, Beach Road redesign nearly done

Stormwater management will be the topic at MassDOT presentation Tuesday.

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Vehicles navigate a flooded section of Beach Road last winter by the Martha's Vineyard Shipyard.

Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) officials will present Tisbury’s Beach Road project plans, 75 percent complete, to the public on March 21, at 5 pm, in the Katharine Cornell Theater. The $2.4 million state and federally funded project will redo the half-mile stretch from Five Corners in Vineyard Haven to the seawall past R.M. Packer Co.

Jay Grande, Tisbury town administrator, told The Times Friday that the issue of stormwater management will be a “foundational topic” for the meeting next Tuesday, which will take place during the Tisbury board of selectmen’s regularly scheduled meeting, immediately following the Tisbury Vision Council meeting. Residents have targeted it as critically in need of innovative and environmentally conscious options, partly because stormwater runoff enters Lagoon Pond.

Mr. Grande said that so far, no mechanisms to treat stormwater runoff and improve water quality by removing pollutants have been presented, and he hasn’t seen a proposal “that feels it has been explored to the extent it needs to be.”

There was a workshop last week, held in the Katharine Cornell Theater, that focused on the preliminary right-of-way plan that was submitted as part of the 75 percent design. It dealt with land in private ownership that would require either permanent or temporary easements for construction.

Mr. Grande said the workshop for residents would be an “an opportunity to see exactly what was going on” with the long-awaited project. There was a good turnout, with representatives and owners from many of the businesses that line Beach Road.

Residents expressed “strong concerns” with the lack of trees and plantings included in the design, and they discussed the possibility of larger sidewalks, according to Mr. Grande. The town had requested a width of eight feet, but in December, MassDOT told town officials they were unable to make that happen. Instead, they proposed the option of a five-and-a-half-foot sidewalk on the east side of the road, from Five Corners to Tisbury Marketplace, and a seven-and-a-half foot sidewalk on the west side of the road, with room for planting trees.

Other topics discussed at the workshop were speed limits, the shared-use path, the placement of crosswalks, and an underground conduit. The conduit will be placed beneath the road, replacing overhead wires crossing the street, from Five Corners to Tisbury Marketplace and from Martha’s Vineyard Shipyard to Wind’s Up.

At the end of the workshop, selectmen agreed to send a representative from their board, as well as representatives from the Beach Road design committee and the Tisbury business community, to meet with MassDOT officials to review comments regarding additional and relocated crosswalks, wider sidewalks, reduced speed zones, additional landscaping, and future planning of underground utilities.

The Beach Road design committee, created in September 2016 by a group of town representatives, includes selectman chairman Melinda Loberg, town administrator Jay Grande, Department of Public Works (DPW) director Ray Tattersall, Ben Robinson of the planning board, and Tisbury Water Works superintendent Paul Wohler.

MassDOT representatives said in December they anticipated a spring 2018 start date, but Mr. Grande told The Times he was “looking for a more definitive answer on the timeline,” and that he’s hoping to know more after the presentation next week.