Rte. 1 Motorists To Learn Patience

REGIONAL – If you travel Rte. 1 between Rowley and Salisbury, you are getting a totally rebuilt roadway by March of 2025.
But getting there for the next two years may be a bit painful. Starting this month, traffic will be slowed while the state Department of Transportation (MassDOT) resurfaces and makes other improvements to the busy highway.
The project will repair the existing pavement that has degraded to a poor level. Bridges have also deteriorated and require routine maintenance, MassDOT stated.
The state agency promises that one lane of traffic in each direction will be kept open, and required lane shifts will have minor impact on traffic delays, but “Drivers who are traveling through the affected areas should expect delays, reduce speed and use caution,” the announcement stated.
The reconstruction project, which will cost $17.2 million of federal and state funds on an 80/20 split, begins at the bridge over Mill River, the Rowley/Newbury border. It continues slightly more than 7 miles to the northern edge of Salisbury.
It includes redesigning the well-traveled Newburyport Rotary to lower speeds, keep motorists in designated lanes and improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety.
The new Rotary will channel motorists into marked traffic lanes. Two northbound lanes entering the Rotary will remain. In a public hearing last November, MassDOT consultant Jessica Lizza said, “The inside lane would be a through or left turn lane and the outside lane would be used for a right turn only. So, the right turn lane would be for any vehicles exiting to State Street or to the business driveways on the east side of the intersection.”
Route 1 south leading into the rotary will be reduced to a single lane to slow traffic, Lizza said.
All work on the project will be done between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. Paving, milling and pavement marking will be limited to nights between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday.
The intersection of Route 1, Middle Road and Hanover Street will be replaced with cement. Sidewalks will be rebuilt at Pond and Low streets in Newburyport.
The work will be extensive, including replacing all guard rails, grates and covers, rebuilding drainage structures, replacing granite edging and curbs. It will also replace signs and repave markings.