FROED One Government Center Fall River, MA 02722-7700 Tel 508-324-2620 Fax 508-677-2840 info@froed.org		ROUTE 24 INTERCHANGE PROJECT GENERATING BUZZ The Herald News, Thursday, March 5, 2009 - Page B1 FREETOWN — The impacts were few but the need was great as two dozen residents, state and local officials gathered for a public meeting about the new Route 24 interchange project scheduled to begin later this year. For a many of the residents in attendance, they were seeing the plans for the first time. MassHighway sought comments from the community as part of the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act’s final Environmental Impact Report filing, one of the final stages in the environmental process before a final approval to build is sought. With $66.9 million coming from federal highway stimulus funds, the project also includes a $4.7 million earmark from Congress and $1.2 million in state funding. In Freetown, the new interchange will connect to South Main Street to the west, Executive Park Drive to the east and to Riggenbach Road in Fall River to the south. Michael J. Paiewonsky, environmental planner for Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., said the proposal would impact 16.6 acres of the state-owned Freetown-Fall River State Forest that would be exchanged for 4,300 acres of Fall River land to create a 13,600-acre bioreserve to be used for recreation, hunting and educational purposes. Besides the 16.6 acres needed to complete the interchange — with a potential of 3.5 acres being returned to the forest after the project's completion — the only other environmental impact is 100 square feet of wetland area, Paiewonsky said. Roland Hebert, Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District Transportation manager ,said a recent southeastern metropolitan planning organization gave the interchange a big thumbs up to allow the project to proceed. “It’s amazing that you can build something of this size and affect only 100 square feet of wetland,” said Hebert. “I congratulate you on finding the driest spot in Freetown.” When asked to elaborate on parts of South Main Street included in the interchange plan, Paiewonsky said part of the road — roughly 2,000 feet just south of the railroad tracks — will be relocated. Resident Robert Raymond asked if the current road would remain intact to allow for access to an existing water facility and he was assured the road would be able to be used for access. Everett Castro, community affairs coordinator for Fall River-based Green Futures, said that after initial concerns the Alternate 10 modified plan received his group's blessing. In citing the proposed construction of a 12-foot-high by 10-foot-wide wildlife tunnel adjacent to the ramp similar to what is found on Route 2 that attracts a number of birds, reptiles and other wildlife, Castro said he wished there were areas along the interchange that could afford residents more access to the forest. With the public comment period ending March 27, MEPA is expected to approve the project by April. A notice to proceed on the project should come by the end of 2009. The interchange will take two years to build. The ramp would allow access to both the proposed Fall River Executive Park, which would accommodate 2.4 million square feet as a business campus for biotech, medical manufacturing and/or health-related industries, and the proposed 575-acre site at the Freetown Riverfront Business Park, which would accommodate 2.5 million square feet of space. The two parks combined are expected to create around 11,000 jobs. Freetown Selectman Larry Ashley applauded state officials for securing the project with such minimal environmental impact after so many years of planning, and said its development will be a huge boost to an area desperate for good news. “It's a huge boost to an area trying to get this for years and suffering through high unemployment. This was a well-thought out proposal and you couldn’t ask for a better project to use stimulus money,” Ashley said. “The jobs it will create — blue collar, white collar, red collar, even no collar — we want jobs, we need good jobs and we are looking to get this done to get those jobs to the area.” Back