A petition bearing numerous signatures has been filed by St. Stanislaus Church urging municipal leadership to reject making permanent the temporary one-way configuration recently implemented on Chestnut Street.
The document accompanying this petition, now under review by both the Traffic Commission and City Council, was read aloud. “This change has been detrimental to the day-to-day business operations of the Parish rectory, prohibits our elderly parishioners from entering and exiting their vehicles in a safe manner, prevents the safe loading and unloading of supplies to both the rectory and the church, disrupts the motor vehicle processional for funerals, impedes workers coming make repairs and service calls to the Church and rectory and causes an increase of noise during our solemn services due to the excessive congestion of traffic,”
For years, Chestnut Street has presented traffic challenges at its intersection with Fourth Street—drivers exiting the Mystic/Tobin Bridge cannot turn in either direction, forcing both directions of traffic onto Fourth Street. When construction affected the Beacon Street off-ramp, officials converted Chestnut into a single one-way thoroughfare stretching from City Hall to Everett Avenue, creating an extended unidirectional corridor.
The modification gained favor among many commuters. Emergency responders found it particularly beneficial—the Police and Fire Departments reported improvements to their operations. Central Fire, in particular, cited faster response capabilities when traveling toward Everett Avenue.
The Traffic Commission and City Council are now considering whether to make this temporary arrangement a permanent fixture.
St. Stan’s stands in opposition to such a change.
“It is jeopardizing the existence of our self-supporting Parish, which has been in existence for the past 110 years,” was contained in the letter submitted by the church. “Chestnut Street is a narrow, one lane road, in a heavily populated residential neighborhood. It is unable to maintain the increased flow of traffic caused by vehicles coming from the Fourth Street off-ramp to the Bridge.”