Manager Updates Council on Transportation Issues

By Adam Swift

Town Manager Tony Marino presented several short transportation-related updates at Tuesday night’s Town Council meeting.

Marino said he sat in on a Sumner Tunnel closure update call on Monday. The tunnel is closed through the end of August as part of a rehabilitation project.

During the first week of the tunnel closing, state officials were working on the traffic patterns, while during the second week, the more closely monitored the traffic times and counts, Marino said.

“What they were using as a baseline was the June traffic data,” said Marino. “The worst day of the week was Tuesday, which added about 30 minutes to the average traffic commute.”

After Tuesday, Marino said the commute times leveled out, coming in at about five to 10 minutes over the average commute time.

“The first Tuesday back after vacation, I think everybody may have forgotten (about the tunnel closure) or not made other accommodations,” said Marino.

Town Council President James Letterie said he had some doubts about the state commute time numbers.

“I would like to see who’s taking the times for five to 10 minutes over the regular commute, because that hasn’t been the experience of most of the people I’ve talked to,” he said. “It’s highly disruptive, and it is something we are dealing with as best as we can, but I think that Winthrop is affected more than some other communities.”

In other transportation updates, Marino said there’s been positive news since the MBTA took over operation of the Winthrop ferry at the beginning of July.

“Attendance has been high, and we are very happy about that,” said Marino.

The town continues to communicate with the MBTA about ferry service, including the possibility of using the ferry building as a shelter for commuters waiting for the ferry, Marino said.

In other business, Marino said the town’s new trash and recycling program which requires the purchase of approved bags for trash that exceeds one barrel has seen a few bumps, but is mostly going well.

“The bags are sold out in a few locations, so we’re stocking them up with more bags,” said Marino.