The Veterans Memorial Rink on Totten Pond Road is so widely used that many have to park in a lot across the street to get to it.
That's made for an increasingly dangerous situation, city councilors said last night.
"Somebody is going to get killed there, or seriously hurt," Ward 1 Councilor Robert Kelly said at a meeting of the Public Works Committee.
The committee met last night with representatives of developer Boston Properties about the possibility of speeding up the installation of a "cross alert system" that would warn drivers when pedestrians are crossing the street.
As part of a special permit the City Council approved last year for a 425,000-square-foot-plus office and shopping development on Totten Pond Road, Boston Properties agreed to put in the system.
As part of the project, Boston Properties plans to demolish three existing office buildings and put up two-six story buildings along with a five-level parking garage at 470, 486 and 504 Totten Pond Road.
Rich Monopoli, a senior project manager with Boston Properties, told the committee last night that his firm couldn't pull a building permit on the project yet because it is waiting to resolve an issue regarding both a curb cut and an easement.
"They expect to resolve everything shortly," said Phillip McCourt, an attorney representing Boston Properties.
While those issues are being resolved, Monopoli said the developer would look to "advance the work" on the crossing system. He said installing the system would likely take about two months.
Ward 2 Councilor Ed Tarallo said one potential problem is that the city no longer has a traffic engineer qualified to review the design of the cross alert system.
In this fiscal budget, Mayor Jeannette McCarthy funded Transportation Director Frank Ching's position just through October, so he no longer works for the city.
"The trouble is, I don't know who in the city approves these types of installations," Tarallo said. "I don't know what the chain of command is."
City Clerk Russ Malone, a member of the city's Traffic Commission, said the commission would soon be sending out requests for proposals seeking a traffic consultant to do that type of work.
Ward 6 Councilor Robert Waddick suggested that the city might want to eventually look at building a pedestrian bridge across Totten Pond Road to further alleviate safety concerns.
Ward 3 Councilor George A. Darcy III suggested instead that, because of the topology of that area, the city should investigate building an underground tunnel so people could safely cross the road.
Council President Thomas Curtin estimated the earliest Boston Properties could install the crossing system would be by February.
In the meantime, Curtin said the committee should ask the Police Department to ramp up traffic enforcement on Totten Pond Road in an effort to slow down drivers.
"It's a dangerous, dangerous situation," Curtin said.
Richard Conn can be contacted at 781-398-8004 or rconn@cnc.com.
