Marblehead officials plan to resubmit a funding request for the Village Street Bridge after their application was excluded from the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Transportation Improvement Program. The town’s proposal, seeking $2.98 million, would have addressed long-standing safety concerns and structural deterioration on the 84-year-old bridge.
Despite the setback, design work on the bridge progressed in 2025 with other state funds. Early cost estimates for full replacement hovered around $11 million.
This month, the town’s Complete Streets Committee announced a $6,250 federal grant for about 20 bike racks around town.
The bike rack locations include about 12 Recreation and Parks Department areas, plus municipal buildings and commercial properties throughout Marblehead.
Pleasant Street emerges as top safety priority
Committee members reviewed design alternatives for four major transportation corridors, with presentations by Jim Fitzgerald from Apex Engineering Consultants.
Pleasant Street, from the Lafayette intersection to Ocean Avenue, was identified as the top priority among the four corridors under review, based on the town’s 2019 Complete Streets plan. Fitzgerald also identified significant safety issues at the Pleasant-Lafayette-Humphrey intersection near the high school based on crash data analysis.
Consultants identified four Pleasant Street intersections for redesign: Pleasant and Humphrey, Pleasant and Smith/Baldwin, Pleasant and Mohawk Road, and Pleasant and Ocean Avenue.
The Pleasant, Lafayette and Humphrey intersection’s skewed geometry near the Marblehead High School creates dangerous conditions where multiple roads converge at odd angles, contributing to high accident rates during peak travel times.
“We know from looking at crash information for the five year period of 2015 to 2019 we’ve got about 18 crashes, almost half of which are rear end, which could be attributed to poor alignment at the (Pleasant, Lafayette and Humphrey) intersection,” Fitzgerald said.
Design alternatives were proposed to improve that busy intersection. The first includes geometric changes to realign skewed approaches and update signal phases to allow concurrent movements between Lafayette Street and the high school driveway.
The second is a single-lane roundabout that would slow traffic, eliminate signal delays and shorten pedestrian crossing distances by introducing splitter islands and refuge points.
Consultants proposed two layout options for the Pleasant Street corridor itself. One features an 11-foot travel lane in each direction, two-foot shoulders, a two-way shared-use path on the north side and a sidewalk on the south. Another option splits bike traffic onto both sides with a buffered bike lane and sidewalk on one side and a shared-use path on the other.
DPW Superintendent Amy McHugh said timing challenges exist due to extensive utility work requiring water, gas, sewer and drainage improvements before street reconstruction.
Roundabouts proposed for three major intersections
Committee members heard extensive discussion of roundabout designs as potential solutions for multiple problematic intersections throughout Marblehead, reflecting what Fitzgerald described as a broader shift toward traffic calming measures that prioritize safety while maintaining efficient traffic flow.
“Roundabouts are a traffic calming measure that also processes traffic efficiently,” he said. “The approaches are designed in a manner to slow traffic down, there’s deflection. You have to turn your wheel to navigate through the roundabout.”
Similar concepts were presented for the Lafayette-West Shore Drive intersection and the Humphrey-Maple-Tedesco intersection, both experiencing poor traffic flow and safety concerns during peak periods.
“There’d be a substantial increase in green space. We’d have less pavement to maintain, as well as less stormwater to address in this area,” Fitzgerald said.
The Humphrey-Maple-Tedesco intersection faces the most severe conditions, with significant delays impacting surrounding traffic flow.
“In the evening in particular, you can see how the queues extend off the screen. So long, long queues, lots of delay here,” Fitzgerald said.
However, committee members expressed worry about implementing roundabouts near school zones.
“I do have concerns about all the kids that are walking, that do rely on lights to cross,” said Police Chief Dennis King.
Also, the Select Board recently accepted a $135,000 MassWorks grant for the Five Corners intersection redesign project.
Beach Street shared-use path targets beach access
Beach Street appears well-suited for Complete Streets funding, a state program providing grants limited to $500,000 per project with application deadlines typically in May and October. Sustainability Coordinator Logan Casey said the Beach Street project could potentially utilize the full grant amount.
Three options were presented for improving the 1,300-foot corridor from Atlantic Avenue to Ocean Avenue, with the primary goal of creating safer connections to nearby beaches for residents and visitors during the summer season.
The existing roadway ranges from 30 to 34 feet wide with informal parking on both sides but no designated pedestrian walkways or bicycle lanes. The northern side presents more obstacles for improvements, including numerous utility poles and mature trees that would complicate construction.
