The state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation has allocated an additional $400,000 to design work for a $6-million project to make Nonantum Road safer.
The money will allow the state to complete the plan for a one-mile stretch of the road, which runs from Galen Street near Watertown Square, through Newton, to Soldiers Field Road in Brighton.
“What we want to do is finish the design so when construction money becomes available we’ll be ready to go on with the project,” said DCR spokeswoman Wendy Fox.
The project’s design work is half complete, Fox said. The $800,000 design was halted last year amid state budget costs.
Fox said the DCR “recently” decided to allocate the extra $400,000 for design work. It realized the project is very important, she said.
“It’s a matter of public safety improvements we need to make in a matter of public safety,” she said. “We take that very seriously.”
Several people have died on that road in the last few years, including most recently a 26-year-old Waltham woman in December.
According to a DCR study, the most dangerous Nonantum Road intersection is with Charlesbank Road. From 2002 to 2004 there were 46 vehicle accidents.
“There’s certainly no more important area than along the Charles River,” state Sen. Steven Tolman said about his road improvement priorities.
The project would reduce most of the stretch between Charlesbank Road and Galen Street from four lanes to two lanes.
A paved median would be added, as well as shoulders to areas that lack them.
Fox said the project’s design will be completed within six months.
She didn’t have a timetable for the project’s construction. That will largely depend on when the state gets funding for the project’s construction, she said.
President-elect Barack Obama has pledged that over the next two years the federal government will give out $775 billion in relief, including money for rebuilding roads and bridges.
Fox said DCR is coming up with a list of projects statewide, including the Nonantum project, to submit in a request to the federal government.
She said she doesn’t know how many projects will be included in the list, or what their total cost will be.
Tolman said he and other state legislators are working with DCR and U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on the effort.
