Business & Tech

Surrounding Communities Challenge Casino Highway Plan

The timeline is questionable, they say, and so is the design.

By Sean O'Donnell

On Wednesday night leaders of the Foxwoods Massachusetts group met with residents of Milford to discuss the proposed traffic impacts on the town, and what they are planning to mitigate the negative impact.

The key feature of the plan is a collector distributor road, similar to what was built in Mansfield at the Comcast center, and a connecting road from a new access road to the casino that would link the highway to Route 16.

But according to leaders of sorrounding communities, that sales pitch might not be all that it's cracked up to be.

“The Simarano Drive exit in Southborough was opened in 2001 just a couple exits north on I-495. However, the engineering, permitting and funding for the exit ramp system took approximately two decades to obtain," wrote Hopkinton Selectman Brian Herr, who is chairman of the MetroWest Anti-Casino Coalition, in a press release. 

"The Foxwoods proposal is far more complicated and will also drag on for decades," he wrote.

The casino planners acknowleged that concern in their report on traffic that was released on Wednesday prior to their presentation. "A ten year planning horizon was selected as it is currently anticipated that the proposed Casino Project would not be fully developed until 2023. Furthermore, a ten year planning horizon was selected to fully analyze the I-495 improvements proposed by the proponent," the casino's report said.

Herr also indicated worries that the collector distributor road might not solve the problem as expected.

"The traffic and congestion backs up for miles," Herr said referring to Mansfield. "Foxwoods is proposing the same exact system, which is clearly a failed model for peak traffic flow."

The casino said at full build out they expect 30,000 more trips on Route 495 on a Saturday which would be nearly a 50 percent increase to the already present traffic. [A person coming to the casino and leaving on the same day would be two trips, one in each direction.]

"In all respects the traffic mitigation plan for the development is seriously flawed, impractical and riddled with red-tape delays," Herr said.


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