Harwich Wants Improvements To Route 6 Interchange

HARWICH – The section of Route 6 east of Exit 82, the interchange with Route 124, is often referred to as a “parking lot” with traffic backups and lengthy delays at certain times of the day. The town’s traffic safety committee wants the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to take steps to remedy the situation.

 Traffic Safety Committee member Gerald Beltis told the committee on July 14 that he sat in on a virtual meeting a couple of weeks ago as MassDOT staff discussed its plans for roadway improvements on Cape Cod over the next five years. Improvements to the Harwich interchange were not included in the plans, according to Beltis.

 “This has been in my craw for many, many years,” Beltis said.

During his career as a firefighter in the town of Chatham, Beltis said, he would listen to the scanner and would often hear of crashes on Route 6. Beltis said the committee asked the Cape Cod Commission to do a study of the on- and off-ramps at Exit 82 (the old Exit 10) and it was determined that the acceleration ramps and off ramps were obsolete. He said the commission found the ramps were supposed to be 400 feet long but were only 200 feet long. The state did additional studies, but plans to address the situation “just got dropped off the table,” Beltis said.

Department of Public Works Director Lincoln Hooper, a member of the committee, said there was an effort a decade ago to address the ramps. Then-town engineer Bob Cafarelli prepared a conceptual design for improvements and it was sent to MassDOT. Lawrence Lynch Corp. was the contractor conducting a road resurfacing project there at the time, said Hooer, and Chris Lynch said the proposal could be implemented at a cost of $70,000.

 The selectmen in 2016 sent a letter to Mary Joe Perry, district five highway director for MassDOT, requesting a change order so the improvements could be added to the resurfacing project.

 “What we got back from MassDOT was, well, sorry, it hasn’t gone through the proper process,” said Hooper. “It was well within their scope to change. The parking lot and the accidents that happen out there are reprehensible.”

Beltis said Fire Chief David LeBlanc said there have been 266 crashes and 66 injuries over a three-year period in the area of the Routes 137 (Exit 85) and 124 interchanges. That’s one accident every week and a half, said Beltis.

In 2016, Cape Cod Commission Transportation Program Director Steven Tupper reported having 780 pages of accident data from the area provided by MassDOT. 

Police Lt. Aram Goshgarian, a member of the committee, said the department does not usually respond to accidents on Route 6 unless they are severe. State police handle most accidents.

Goshgarian said given the backup conditions along that section of Route 6, many vehicles get off the highway at Exit 85 and use Long Pond Road to head west. Residents along Long Pond Road have registered complaints about traffic and the backups that occur at Route 124.

Beltis recommended the town and Cape Cod Commission should send letters to MassDOT requesting conditions at the two interchanges be put on the MassDOT five-year plan. The committee agreed the acceleration lane west from the Route 124 interchange should be addressed first.

The initial letter to MassDOT requesting improvements should come from the select board, committee members agreed. But it was also agreed that all the necessary data supporting the town’s position should be obtained for presentation to MassDOT. Goshgarian and Hooper were assigned that task. 

 “All we’re asking is the Cape Cod Commission work with us to get this in front of the state and on the five year plan,” said Town Administrator Jay McGrail. “Whether [MassDOT does] it or not, that’s not up to us.” 

He added, “The backups are terrible. It’s dicey when trying to get on [the highway].” Resident Matt Sutphin said the state should provide all the reasons for the backup there. The issue is not cars, he said, its people coming to the Cape. He questioned initiatives that continue to invite people to come to Cape Cod. 

 “If we don’t put the brakes on it, it's going to become Staten Island,” Sutphin said.