SHREWSBURY – Traffic remains a concern for the proposed UPS warehouse on the Shrewsbury-Grafton town line.
The project — planned for a 212-acre lot at 50 Centennial Drive, off of Centech Boulevard — calls for an 845,500-square-foot warehouse split 70% in Grafton and 30% in Shrewsbury. The currently undeveloped land would become a new regional distribution hub for UPS and may handle upward of 50,000 packages per hour.
Marlborough-based MDM Transportation Consultants, the traffic engineering company representing the developer, Prologis Inc., performed an analysis of the project and — based on trip rates at UPS facilities in Indiana and Utah — determined that the Shrewsbury project would generate about 5,000 total trips per 24hour weekday period. Roughly 3,600 of those trips would be from employees, 500 would be from single-unit trucks, and 900 would be trips made by articulated trucks.
Three-fourths of the trips would be oriented toward the Route 20 corridor.
“Five thousand more trips, either east or west, are going to significantly impact our neighborhood,” Sandra Fryc said at the Aug. 1 Planning Board meeting. “I try to go out during the day when I think there won’t be traffic, and it can literally take me five minutes to turn right … Safely getting in and out of Stoney Hill Road now is sometimes almost impossible.”
Among other concerns, Fryc said that the traffic study was more academic than practical and that, as a resident, she has first-hand experience about the roadway that isn’t necessarily reflected in the traffic study. At the meeting, Planning Board Chair Moe DePalo seemed to agree with Fryc’s sentiment.
“The traffic engineers seem to focus on peak [usage]. People within the area focus on their experiences during the day … If every time you go out on a road, and 10 years ago you could drive on that road without any problem, and now it takes you 10 minutes longer … In everybody’s mind it’s a problem. But you guys focus on peak [usage],” said DePalo on Aug. 1.
The concern seems to stretch further. Town Manager Kevin Mizikar noted in a July “Ask the Manager” segment that he felt more comfortable with the traffic studies performed for other projects throughout town, like the Clinton Street warehouse.
“We’ve been trying to work with the developer to ensure … we don’t undercount the traffic impacts that are going to be [there]. I just want to be really clear: When I look at the [UPS] project and I compare it to the Clinton Street project, I feel like the developer on the Clinton Street project really… was a true partner. We need to continue to work with the developer of UPS to do that, because we’re not seeing that level of diligence with the product they’re producing,” he said.
The trip statistics are well below the industry standard considering the volume of traffic Route 20 handles, said MDM Managing Principal Robert Michaud. MDM’s traffic study accounts for recent and proposed changes to Route 20, including the work near Market Basket and the proposed work — which includes two new roundabouts — between Green Street and Valente Drive as part of the Route 20 Corridor Project.
The plans call for improvements to the intersection of Route 20 and Centech Boulevard, which has a “preexisting need” for enhancement, according to MDM, and will see an upturn in traffic due to the construction of the UPS warehouse and nine other identified housing projects slated for the local area, like Grafton’s Afonso Village and Shrewsbury’s Emerald Run.
The intersection would be restriped and traffic signal timing would be optimized, according to plans presented at the August Planning Board meeting.
“I will not paint this as something that is a long-term solution,” said Michaud. “But, it is a solution that will not only address the recently approved projects, but the additional impact that’s created by this particular use on Centech Boulevard.”
MDM also outlined a “transportation mitigation framework,” which includes $900,000 of aggregate funding to construct interim and long-term improvements at the Route 20-Centech intersection. Roughly $150,000 of additional funds would be used to improve the Route 30-Pine Street intersection in Grafton.