Manchester shows four ways to fix the Bennett Street intersection, from an all way stop to closing Bennett Street at the corner; a survey is open until Nov. 27

Manchester-by-the-Sea's Department of Public Works laid out four ways to rebuild the intersection where Bennett, Pine, Central and Bridge streets meet at a public forum on Wednesday, Nov. 4, and asked residents to pick them apart in an online survey that runs through Nov. 27. The work would come with a roughly $4 million Bennett Street water, sewer, drainage and road project that goes to the April town meeting for construction money. (Read our preview of the forum.)

What happened

• Public Works Director Chuck Dam said no decision has been made. The forum and the survey are the first round of input on concepts; a fuller plan goes to the Select Board, the Finance Committee and town meeting in the late winter or spring.
• The town's consultant measured drivers on Pine Street at an average of 27 mph in a 20 mph zone, with 15 percent going 31 mph or faster.
• State crash records show five crashes at the intersection from 2021 through 2025, one with a serious injury, none involving a pedestrian or cyclist. The consultant said a low count does not mean the corner is safe.
• A full roundabout does not fit the space, so it is off the table.
• Residents pressed on speeding on Bridge Street, poor sight lines from Bennett Street, fuel trucks blocking Central Street, drainage, and what a one way or dead end Bennett Street would do to the neighborhood.

What the consultant found

Toole Design, the Boston firm hired through the town's utility engineer VHB, watched the intersection in September. Its presenter said there is one striped crosswalk, across Bridge Street, with no accessible curb ramps, and people, including young children, cross the other legs anyway. Drivers pulling out of Bennett Street cannot see cars coming down Bridge Street and inch far into the intersection. Drivers on Central Street stop even though they have no stop sign, because they cannot tell who is about to pull out. The gas station on the corner has entrances on two streets and at the point of the intersection, so fuel trucks, landscaping trucks and cars with boat trailers enter and leave in ways other drivers do not expect.

Residents added that a driver leaving Bennett Street or coming down Pine Street has no way to signal whether they are going straight or turning, because Bennett Street and Route 127 both look straight ahead. One resident said family members were hit at that spot. Another said fuel tankers park in front of 41 Central Street for up to 15 minutes and block the view for everyone behind them. Several said cars come down Bridge Street faster than the consultant's Central Street numbers suggest.

For how Manchester's roads compare with the rest of Cape Ann, see our review of crash records in all four towns. (Read the crash records story.)

The four options

• Option 1: rebuild the intersection as it is, with a better crosswalk and accessible ramps. The consultant said this fixes little.
• Option 2A: stop signs on every approach, crosswalks on every leg, Pine Street narrowed from two lanes to one with a continuous sidewalk, gas station access only from Pine Street, a raised crosswalk across Bennett Street, and low mountable islands on Bridge and Central streets with a concrete truck apron for big vehicles.
• Option 2B: the same, plus Bennett Street one way, outbound only, between Pine Street and Forster Street, which would free room for a sidewalk and parking but send Bennett Street residents around by Bridge Street to get downtown.
• Option 3: close Bennett Street at the intersection, with a mountable barrier for fire trucks and deliveries, and give the gas station an entrance on Pine Street and an exit on Bennett Street. The consultant said that from an engineering view it addresses the most of the problems on the list.
• Option 4: raise the whole intersection to sidewalk height to slow traffic, keep every entrance and exit as it is, and narrow Pine Street to one lane.

Dam said the options are a toolkit and the final design could mix them. Traffic modeling with September counts found that one lane on Pine Street would not back up badly outside rush hour, and the firm has run truck and boat trailer turns through each layout. The town is already talking with the gas station owner, who attended, about access.

What residents said

Speakers objected to raised crosswalks because of the water that runs down Pine, Bennett and Central streets in storms; Dam said the project includes new drainage. Some said an all way stop would confuse drivers and back up traffic the way the roundabout trial did years ago. Bennett Street residents said a one way street would become a cut through for landscaping trucks, and a dead end would leave delivery trucks and movers with nowhere to turn. Others asked the town to narrow lanes and paint the pavement before building anything, to enforce parking rules on Bennett Street in summer, and to fix the rough trench left by the recent gas line work. A town official said parking enforcement is on the Select Board's agenda for its next meeting in November. Dam said the gas company must maintain its trench over the winter and the DPW will have it repaved if it settles.

The intersection's south side is in the historic district, but Dam said pavement treatments are not the kind of change the district rules restrict.

What happens next

• The survey is open on the town website through Nov. 27. The slides are to be posted there as well.
• A culvert project on Central Street will close the road for a time; the town plans to try an all way stop at the intersection during that closure.
• The Bennett Street project will be a line in the capital budget that goes to the April town meeting; the design is already funded in this year's budget. If approved, bids would go out for July, a contractor could start about a year from now, and the final paving with the intersection changes would come in 2028 or 2029.

Where to find the records

• Forum video, on the town's YouTube channel
• Town calendar listing for the forum
• Town website, where the survey link and the slides are to be posted

Earlier coverage: Manchester holds a Nov. 4 public forum on the Bennett, Pine, Central and Bridge street intersection (Oct. 30); Tonight in Manchester: public forum on the Bennett Street intersection (Nov. 4); Manchester accepts its harbor plan as a working document and lets harbor and well contractors start at 7 a.m. (Nov. 4), the Select Board's winter projects; Cape Ann's most dangerous roads: 2,500 crashes in Gloucester, Rockport, Essex and Manchester, and what each town is fixing (Oct. 21).

How we did this: Cape Ann Current watched the forum online and checked names against the town's website. These are our meeting notes, not an official record.