Final Environmental Impact Report - Whittier Bridge/I-95 ...

imack Valley
ning Commission
plan * develop *promote
December 19, 2011
Richard K Sullivan, Jr.
Secretary
EOEEA
100 Cambridge St., Suite 900, 9 th Floor
Boston, MA 02114
Attn: MEPA Office, EEA #14427
Dear Mr. Sullivan,
The Merrimack Valley Planning Commission appreciates the opportunity to comment on the Environmental
Assessment/Draft Environmental Impact Report (EAlDEIR) for the Whittier Bridge/I-95 Improvement Project located in our
member communities of Newburyport, Amesbury and Salisbury. Overall, we are in agreement with the preferred
alternative and have only a few comments:
First, environmental mitigation such as wetlands replication and invasive species control on site has marginal if any real
improvement on the habitat quality along the river. We encourage MassDOT to persuade environmental regulatoryMVPC1
agencies to allow them to direct their mitigation efforts toward larger scale projects in the watershed in the vicinity of the
project,inthiscase the Great Marsh, in order to have more impactful results. There is significant multi-stakeholder Task
Force;involvement in coastal wetland restoration and invasive species control in the nearby Merrimack River estuary that
would benefit greatly from MassDOT resources. The results of such an effort would far exceed the improvements
projected by the cumulative local mitigation activities. .
Second, the proposed non-motorized trail will provide tremendous connections to the bicycle/pedestrian network being
built by the three communities and access points are invaluable to those connections. The City of Amesbury has
discussed the possibility of pursuing an additional access point to the trail from Main Street in the future and we ask that
this be taken into consideration during the design of the bridge.
Finally, we realize that MassDOT is not interested in pursuing control of the former railroad right-of-way that passes under
1-95 as part of this particular project. However, this is a critical connection for the trail network. It will provide the only
possible safe connection between the Powow Riverwalk in Amesbury and both the Whittier Bridge trail (through the
connection via Rabbit Road) and the Ghost Trail in Salisbury. Loss of this connection would force bicyclists and
pedestrians onto the busy Route 110 corridor and through its interchange with Interstate 95. While we recognize that the
state does not seek to provide this connection as part of this project, steps should be taken to ensure that the planned
improvements do not impair this connection being made in future.
Again, we thank you for this opportunity to comment. If you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact me.
teIY'~
Dennis· A. DiZogli
E·xecutive Directo
160 Main Street, Haverhill, Mf\. 01830 phone· 978.374.0519 • fax· 978.372.4890
Serving the communities of:
Amesbury Andover Boxford Georgetown Groveland Haverhill Lawrence Merrimac Methuen
Newbury Newburyport North Andover Rowley Salisbury \Vest Newbury