The Andover Select Board will consider lowering the speed limit from 40 MPH to the town-wide 25 MPH speed limit when it meets Monday night at 7.
If approved, the select board would need to petition the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to make the change. Lovejoy is among 29 roads in thickly settled districts with special speed regulations on file with MassDOT that supersede local regulations. A complete list of the 29 streets with special speed regulations is available on the Town’s Website.
Lovejoy Road was not on the list of 40 roads in Andover subjected to the new town-wide speed limit when it was passed last year. Officials worried reducing the speed limit would create a new issue: the road’s existing layout would not “encourage speeds of 25 MPH.”
The road, which has a speed limit of 40 MPH, cuts through a densely-populated neighborhood and past Sanborn Elementary School. Drivers often use it as a cut through to and from Dascomb Road when Interstate 93 is backed up.
Town officials considered a total of 34 roads with MassDOT for the 25 MPH limit before presenting 16 for the select board to vote on. The 16 streets the select board voted to lower the limit are:
- Abbot Bridge Drive
- Algonquin Avenue
- Andover Street
- Argilla Road
- Ballardvale Road
- Beacon Street
- Brundrett Avenue
- Central Street
- Eastman Road
- Elm Street
- High Street
- Lupine Road
- School Street
- Salem Street
- Shawsheen Road
- Woburn Street