On Beacham Street

The news that Mayor Carlo DeMaria and Chelsea City Manager Tom Ambrosino are working together to fix Beacham Street with the hope of landing state and federal grants certainly is good news.  This main roadway serves not only commuters, but also is the main entry and exit for the New England Produce Center.

For years, the Everett City Council has been debating on what repairs should be done to this road.  And the repairs are tricky.

Much of the area is wetlands and a dump site that was filled in many years ago.  As a result, underneath the road is not solid material but is constantly shifting.  Add to this, the fact that there are hundreds of huge trucks carrying tons of food and supplies on a daily basis.  For any road, the traffic would be a problem, but a road without a solid base is even more of a problem.

Everett and Chelsea officials are trying to secure state and federal grants to fix this road.  Not only are the grants to repair the road, but are also to make repairs to try to ensure that the road does not flood during storms, cutting off a the food supply to the entire Northeast.

The joint re-design of this roadway for car and truck traffic, and also for bicyclists is welcome.  It should also be noted that there is talk that Wynn will have a parking lot at the Produce Center for its employees that will also be using this road.

Like many streets in our community that have become secondary roads when the main highways get gridlocked, Beacham Street  since the 1960s has always been more a state and regional road rather than just a municipal road. The repair and upkeep to this roadway cannot be funded by local taxpayers.

We applaud DeMaria and Ambrosino for working together to explore getting the state and federal grants to fix this vital regional roadway.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *