"It's very strange": Utility poles in the middle of Natick streets after construction
NATICK - It's never a good sign when there's broken headlight debris next to a utility pole. That's the scene on Bacon Street in Natick where there's a pole that appears to be in the middle of a travel lane. "You'll just crash right into a pole in the middle of the street," said Gianni Rosas.
Road crews widened the street where it intersects with Route 27. But the pole that used to be on the side of the road is now left in the middle. "The turn's real tight. You've got all the barrels and the pole out there, so that could be pretty dangerous for people," said Rosas.
There are other similar poles in Natick's roadways, and town officials say they've been like that for about a year and a half. There's another on Lake Street, and a line of them encroaching into the road along North Main Street. "It's very strange. It's going to cause accidents if it hasn't already," said one woman crossing the street.
Neighbor Mike Meares lives right in front of the pole on Lake Street. He says it's in a tricky spot where drivers tend to go fast. "They just ignore the lines in the road. They just cut right across like it's a racetrack," he said.
WBZ-TV went looking for answers. Natick Public Works Executive Director Bill Spratt said the holdup is with utilities not one, but a group of them. He said each wire attached to the poles belongs to a different utility, and each company has to remove its own wires in a particular order, before the utility that owns the pole finally removes it. He said the schedule can be tedious.
"It's absolute hell getting down here for the past two years," said a driver on Route 27, which is a state road maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
MassDOT sent a statement to WBZ.
"MassDOT is aware of a pole on Route 27 at Lake Street, delineated with orange drums, that will be removed by the utility company within 3 weeks. Other utility poles, not in the travel lane, are along Route 27 in Natick. They are between the white line near the curb and the curb itself."
Some Natick residents are hoping the utilities will speed up the fix.
"At nighttime it's definitely more of a challenge," said Joe Horlank. "So hopefully they'll do it sooner than later - today."
