While state highway officials believe a rotary is the best solution to calm traffic and slow drivers down on Route 177, a Tickle Road resident who lives a stone’s throw from the planned rotary, and at least one select board member, said Monday that they’ll fight the MassDOT-funded project every step of the way.

“Come over for lunch, I’ll show you” the impacts it will have, 407 Tickle Road resident Michelle Carty told select board members Monday evening. “I’m not going to take an hour of everyone’s time to say everything that’s wrong with the plan. I realize that the state is going to do what they’re going to do. (But) this has a lot of impacts on my family.”

Yet the rotary is coming, an engineer working on the state project said Monday evening, before select board members voted 3-2 to approve the relocation of two National Grid utility poles to make way for the eventual project.

“With MassDOT funding the project, they need to come up with a solution that meets the need (and) is also warranted,” Pare Corp. engineer Amy Archer said.

State officials went through an “alternatives analysis,” she told select board members, but rejected other options to slow traffic at the intersection, including installing a flashing light or traffic signals, following a fatality in the area about six years ago.

“MassDOT’s stance is they cannot move forward (with projects) that are not warranted or justified. This project is scheduled … so they are moving forward on the funding. We are moving ahead.”

But Carty, and select board member Jake McGuigan, questioned the foundation of the state’s argument, that a rotary is warranted to make that area of 177 safe for drivers following that fatality.

“From what I saw from (a previous) traffic study, there have been no more accidents — there’s literally been no difference from before that fatality to after,” Carty said.

“One fatality,” McGuigan added. “I don’t think it warrants a $5 million rotary.”

Preliminary step

Monday evening’s discussion focused on the relocation of two utility poles DOT hopes to move as they redesign the intersection, and Archer told board members that the larger project itself still needs several rounds of review before it is sent out to bid, probably some time in late 2026 or early 2027.

It’s an important point, select board member Richard Brewer asked, because he wasn’t sure whether the poles’ relocation was “related to whether this project in the first place is worthy.”

Ultimately he, chairwoman Shana Teas and Craig Dutra voted for the relocation, while McGuigan and board member Manuel Soares Jr. voted against.

McGuigan said the rotary is a good example of the lack of local control that results when MassDOT gets involved in infrastructure projects.

“When we start going down this road and giving full authority to MassDOT we have residents that A: can’t get answers, or B: can’t really put in input. I’m not an engineer … I have a business background … but I don’t quite understand why if (Route 177) is so highly trafficked, why are we now going to create a traffic jam for people going around in a circle and going nowhere?”

“I will continue to vote against everything having to do with this project.”