Wellesley DPW to fix that weird Benvenue/Brook Street intersection

For years I’ve experimented with navigation techniques to maneuver through the Brook/Benvenue/Radcliffe intersection. Although I’ve never run the Subaru aground in that area, it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing, either. That convergence of three streets is a lawless place where stop signs seem like suggestions and the island, shaped like a right triangle, is somehow all wrong. Once I asked for driving advice from a passenger and Radcliffe Road resident. He was seven years old. “How does your mom handle this part?” I asked my back-seat rider, who was flattered and thrilled to be promoted to back-seat driver.

“She first goes right, then goes left really quickly so she can beat the other cars coming from that way,” he said with confidence.

My driving instructor is now a twenty-something college student, and I still follow his advice. No matter which way I approach the Bermuda Triangle of Wellesley intersections, I go really quickly so I can beat the other cars coming from every which way but loose. Let’s just say we’ve all been lucky.

Now the town has decided to put an end to this fun, once and for all. This from the Department of Public Works (DPW):

Road Work on Brook & Benvenue Streets Begins on July 1

The DPW will begin work on the Brook Street & Benvenue Street Intersection Improvement Project on July 1, 2019. The project will reconfigure the Brook Street, Benvenue Street and Radcliffe Road intersection.

Plans include removing the traffic island, relocating utility poles, improving drainage, and installing sidewalk, wheelchair ramps and granite curbing. Some residential driveways at the intersection will be reconfigured and DPW will also add guardrails, new pavement and pavement markings, signs and landscaping.

Work will take place Monday through Friday between 7:00 AM and 5:00 PM. Police details will be on-site during construction to minimize impacts to traffic, parking, and other roadway functions.

A minimum of one lane of traffic in each direction will be open in the area throughout the majority of the project.

The work is scheduled to be completed in October 2019.

For updates on this project, go to the DPW webpage on the Town of Wellesley website. Questions? Email the DPW Engineering Division.