JULY NEWS
Work aims to get Classical
traffic rolling along
By Thor Jourgensen, The Daily Item of Lynn,
Thursday, July 14, 2005
LYNN
- Susan Kasian hopes roadway work on Holyoke Street three blocks from her home
will bring an end to the mornings she spent waiting to pull into traffic on
Keslar Avenue.
The road construction, scheduled for completion in September, will realign
Keslar and O'Callaghan Way to smooth traffic flow and end the morning traffic
jams outside Classical High School that snarled commutes for residents on side
streets like Curran Road where Kasian lives.
"Some mornings, I couldn't even get out of my street to get my son to
school," she said.
Smoother traffic down O'Callaghan past Classical, nearby Breed Middle School and
the Callahan School is only one goal of the Holyoke work. Contractors are also
creating Devlin Way, a 40-foot road off Holyoke, and adding a turnaround at the
end of Holyoke Road.
The short road and turnaround will lead to 12 single-family homes to be built on
the former site of the Joseph B. Devlin city nursing home and provide a drop off
area for Callahan School parents.
"This will provide more access," Callahan Principal Edward Turmenne
said, adding that parents now park along O'Callaghan Way and drop off their
children.
The dropoffs slow traffic along O'Callaghan and, said Kasian, prompt parents to
snarl traffic by executing U-turns after they drop off their children.
City officials hope the roadwork will be done before school starts on Sept. 7.
Utility work associated with the roadway reconstruction starts this month and
construction of 12 single-family homes on lots bordered by the new roads begins
in September.
Although she welcomes the road improvements, Kasian hopes the alignment of
O'Callaghan and Keslar will not increase speeding on Keslar, a residential road
running from Holyoke to Boston Street.