Improvements are coming to Swansea Mall Drive and you can have a say on what will take place

SWANSEA — Town Administrator Mallory Aronstein invites community members to attend an upcoming listening session regarding proposed improvements to Swansea Mall Drive. Members of the business community, as well as residents and visitors, are welcome and urged to attend.

The session will take place on Tuesday, June 6, from 6-8 p.m. at the Swansea Council on Aging, 260 Ocean Grove Ave.

Attendees will have the opportunity to provide their input on the Swansea Mall Drive Improvements project.

At the workshop, residents, business owners, and interested stakeholders will inform the town’s decision on how best to re-envision this roadway to make it more vibrant, more multi-modal, and more reflective of Swansea’s small-town roots.

There will be three breakout sessions – Vehicles and Drivers, Cyclists and Bike Facilities, and Pedestrians and Walking Considerations – to review various aspects of the project, guided by facilitators from Fuss & O’Neil.

In October 2021, the Town of Swansea was designated a Complete Streets community, an initiative aimed at making streets and streetscapes better looking, greener, smarter and able to safely accommodate a variety of transportation modes, including pedestrian activity.

As part of the Complete Streets initiative, Route 118 was identified as a priority area for traffic improvements. As part of this priority, the Town looked to examine how it could better utilize the land, improve traffic and speed management, and create better access to commercial areas near Route 118.

The Town is working with MassDOT for funding and has secured a place on MassDOT’s Transportation Improvement Program list. The project is currently in the second part of the design phase, which includes public comment on the design, a review of design alternatives, and examining preferred solutions to various problems. These problems, in addition to traffic management and economic vibrancy, include heat island effect, stormwater management, and other key community benefits.