BEVERLY — This fall, the city expects to begin construction on a new “peanutabout” traffic circle at the intersection of Brimbal Avenue and Dunham Road to make the traffic flow there and at the nearby Route 128 southbound on-and-off ramp less congested.
The “peanutabout” roundabout is a new traffic design already used in Woburn and several Western Massachusetts towns that’s described as an oblong shape, or much like a peanut.
Beverly has been awarded two MassWorks grants totaling $6.5 million, which should cover the cost of the project. The city is accepting bids until Aug. 12, with construction planned to begin in the fall and last 18 months, likely through June 2028, according to the City Engineer Lisa Chandler.
The 54-acre Dunham Ridge complex, which sits behind Dunham Road, has expanded, causing additional traffic and making the intersection busier and trickier than normal — in addition to the periodic traffic backups that accompany performances at North Shore Music Theatre on Dunham Road, she said.
“It’s going to improve safety in a general sense,” Chandler said, “but it’s going to improve traffic from a flow standpoint and from the volume of traffic that’s going in (to Dunham Ridge). When Cummings Property started developing that project, they had to investigate at the intersection of Dunham Road, including the possibility of installing a traffic signal or something similar.
“It was studied from a whole manner of things, and it was concluded that this would be the most appropriate way to handle the traffic.”
Chandler added that the strategy to use the “peanutabout” roundabout is simple.
“There are so many intersections and roads converging at one place; the traditional circle doesn’t really capture all the necessary turning movements,” she said. “That oblong peanut shape handles that.”
Once construction begins, Chandler said that normal traffic will be maintained.
“It’s the only way in and out of Dunham Road, so we can’t shut it down,” she said. “It may be alternating traffic at some point, depending on which stage of the project they’re doing, but there will be a traffic flow from that standpoint.
“There might come a time when they close the off-ramp to Route 128, just temporarily during the day, but we anticipate it will be reopened when they are not actually doing construction.”