State-funded project will connect school properties
Drivers on Gliniewicz Way should be aware of possible lane shifts as work proceeds on a new bike lane that will make it easier to travel between two busy parts of town.
A crew from Glenn R. LaPointe Inc. this week started installing a new granite curb line along the northbound side of Gliniewicz Way. The new protected bike lane will sit between the new curb line and the old curb line.
While work progresses, the southbound lane, which is normally one way, may temporarily become a two-way road. Drivers traveling to the middle/high school, town library, or town hall are able to switch back into the northbound travel lane at the roundabout.
A protected bike lane will also later be added to Lincoln Boulevard providing residents with a safer way to travel between the new middle/high school complex and Memorial Field, Beaver Brook Elementary School, and the former Frolio School.
The $399,996 project is being funded through a state Complete Streets program grant. The purpose of the grant program is to help communities make important roadways multi-modal or safer for pedestrians and bicyclists to use, in addition to drivers.
The Gliniewicz Way portion of the work is being done now in order to finish up the roadway before school starts in mid-September, according to Department of Public Works Superintendent John Stone.
The larger Lincoln Boulevard piece of the project will be put out to bid soon and completed possibly this fall, he said. The project will add a protected bike lane from the corner of Washington Street up to the new middle/high school without impacting traffic flow or reducing street parking, Stone said.
Crews will use the old granite curbing to construct a partial, new granite curb on the opposite side of Gliniewicz Way in order to prevent drivers from illegally cutting across the median and taking a left onto the southbound travel lane. Drivers leaving the high school complex next to the new fenced-in grass fields are required to take a right and loop around the rotary in order to exit out Gliniewicz Way.
Selectmen adopted the complete streets program and 2018 and submitted a list of 30 infrastructure projects for consideration. The Lincoln Boulevard and Gliniewicz Way bike lane was the first Abington project awarded a grant by the state.
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