ANDOVER — Town officials look to firm up a plan to make Elm Square safer for all users, and more pedestrian-friendly.
The Select Board will consider voting to support a preferred design alternative for Elm Square safety improvements at its Monday meeting ahead of the design being submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation for final approval.
Efforts to improve the downtown intersection came as a response to tragedy when 5-year-old Sidney Olson was fatally hit by a tractor-trailer in a crosswalk in Elm Square as she was walking with her family to art class.
Following Olson’s death on May 29, 2023, the town initiated an assessment of Elm Square to improve and implement user safety of the intersection. An interdepartmental group of town officials, The Engineering Corp (TEC), participation from Massachusetts Department of Transportation and public input has guided the improvement project for more than two years.
“There’s been a lot of community involvement and work done by town leaders, the engineering team and the state’s buy-in to get to this point,” Department of Public Works Director Carlos Jaquez said.
“The presentation to the Select Board on Monday will show how we got here, which is a result of technical analysis and community feedback.”
A road safety audit helped address safety concerns. The report, released August 2023, detailed 88 potential safety enhancements to the intersection, according to the town’s website. The safety enhancements included short-, mid- and long-term changes and associated costs.
Short-term improvements implemented at Elm Square include exclusive pedestrian phasing to stop traffic in all directions while walk signs are activated and no turn on red signals.
There were two preferred alternative designs presented in April. The project team collected public input to develop the two alternative designs from an initial six options.
Ahead of April’s Town Meeting, officials developed an alternative plan which was a hybrid of what people liked and disliked from previous designs over the course of four public forums.
The design includes reinstalling and realigning the intersection’s crosswalks. A singular crosswalk at Elm Square will allow users to cross the five-way intersection at once by adding six seconds to the wait.
Other planned construction work includes removing the slip lanes and narrowing some traffic lanes approaching Elm Street at Main Street to better define traffic patterns. The plan also will see new traffic signal heads installed and sidewalk work.
Pending the Select Board’s approval, the preliminary design would then be submitted to MassDOT for its review and a traffic control agreement.
Jaquez said depending on any changes at the MassDOT level, a final design may need to be presented to the Select Board. Jaquez said if all goes to plan, the goal is to start phased construction in spring 2026 to cause the least disruptions to residents and businesses downtown.