Local News
Officials say the loss of state funding halts safety upgrades at one of the North Shore’s most dangerous intersections.
Middleton. Justin Sultzbach
February 2, 2026 | 2:34 PM
4 minutes to read
Middleton has lost a $2 million state infrastructure grant intended to fund long-awaited safety improvements at one of the North Shore’s “most dangerous” intersections after the town was deemed noncompliant with the MBTA Communities Act, according to local officials.
The funding was intended to support a major reconstruction of the Route 62 and Route 114 intersection in Middleton Square — a high-crash traffic bottleneck area identified by MassDOT — but state officials could not move forward because the town failed to adopt required zoning under the MBTA Communities Act.
Why Middleton lost the funding
Middleton brought MBTA Communities Act zoning to town meeting twice, but it failed both times. As a result, the town has been deemed noncompliant by the state and was sued last week by Attorney General Andrea Campbell, alongside eight other municipalities.
The grant was awarded in October 2024 through the Healey-Driscoll administration’s Community One Stop for Growth program and administered by the Executive Office of Economic Development. In its award letter, the EOED warned that no contract would be executed if the town remained noncompliant with Section 3A of Chapter 40A, the MBTA Communities Act. The EOED declined to comment.
A dangerous intersection with heavy daily traffic
The MassWorks-funded project would have fully reconstructed the Boston Street (Route 62) intersection with South Main Street (Route 114), including widening the roadway, adding new traffic signals, drainage improvements, and updating pavement markings and signage.
MassDOT classifies the Route 114 and Route 62 intersection as a high-crash location and was listed as a “Top 5% Intersection Crash Cluster” statewide for the 2018-2020 reporting period, the most recent data available.
According to the grant application, the intersection is one of the most challenging sections of the corridor, which carries nearly 25,000 vehicles daily. Officials said congestion and safety concerns at the intersection already limit economic growth and would be exacerbated by additional development.
“Driving through is an absolute nightmare to get through,” Middleton Town Administrator Justin Sultzbach said. “It’s a choke point. We get thousands and thousands of drivers from neighboring communities passing through Middleton every single day.”
Housing project moves forward — without road safety upgrades
The infrastructure project was to be completed alongside a privately funded development by Villebridge at the same intersection. The proposal includes a 60-unit multifamily building under Chapter 40B — with at least 25 percent of the units designated as affordable — alongside roughly 19,000 square feet of neighborhood-scale commercial retail.
“The project was very much designed to be intertwined,” Sultzbach said, noting that the developer “carved out a pretty sizable easement for the town as part of that development agreement for the parcel.”
According to the grant application, Villebridge committed approximately $400,000 in land value to alter the layout of Boston Street and South Main Street, plus an additional $225,000 toward traffic mitigation. About $50,000 has already been spent on surveys, preliminary traffic engineering, and conceptual design.
Villebridge declined Boston.com’s request for comment.
Without the state funding, town officials say the housing development will still move forward, but without the traffic improvements that were meant to accompany it.
Sultzbach warned that new housing without infrastructure upgrades will worsen existing traffic and safety issues.
“It’s going to take a very difficult and dangerous intersection and inject 60 households worth of vehicles into it with no improvements,” he said.
Select Board Chair Brian Cresta said the grant was a rare opportunity to address safety issues at a state-owned intersection using a combination of state, town and private dollars.
“We were asking the state for a grant to do an update on an intersection that they own,” Cresta said. “You would think, by us stepping up, spending our own tax dollars asking for a grant to support a state project, they would want to do this, because the state knows how bad this intersection is.”
Traffic studies provided by MassDOT and the developer’s engineers showed the intersection was operating at a failing level and had a long history of crashes, Cresta said.
“This is probably one of the most dangerous intersections on the North Shore,” he added.
Middleton’s Select Board formally appealed to Gov. Maura Healey in a February 2025 letter, warning that losing the funding would undermine both public safety and affordable housing goals.
“Failing to fix this known hazard intersection needlessly puts the nearly 25,000 vehicles that drive through town on a daily basis at risk,” the board wrote.
Town officials say there’s no backup plan
Both Sultzbach and Cresta said the town lacks the ability to fund the project on its own, particularly since the roadway is owned by MassDOT. After recently approving two major overrides already, Cresta said it is unlikely residents would vote in another.
Both officials stressed that the decision has real safety implications.
“The health and safety of citizens of the Commonwealth should take precedence over trying to teach Middleton a lesson,” Sultzbach said.
Cresta agreed, calling it “unfortunate” that the state acknowledged the danger of the intersection but declined to fund improvements.
“For small communities, permitting a project of that size is extraordinarily cumbersome, and coordinating efforts to try to secure grant funding, improve infrastructure, to encourage developers to build, or to support developers and building takes a lot of time and effort from municipalities that are very strapped for time and resources,” Sultzbach said. “I think that’s the most disappointing piece.”
For now, officials say the intersection project is effectively on hold, with no clear path forward and no funding to address what both town leaders and state data agree is a dangerous stretch of roadway.
Annie Jonas is a Community writer at Boston.com. She was previously a local editor at Patch and a freelancer at the Financial Times.
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