LEOMINSTER — On Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, the Leominster Planning Board voted to submit a list of locations for possible traffic studies through the Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP), after reviewing requests from city departments and adding several intersections members said need closer review. The UPWP is a federally required annual or biennial transportation planning program in which municipalities identify priority studies and activities, with Leominster’s requests submitted through the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission.
The planning board received three traffic study location recommendations from the Department of Public Works (DPW) and one from Mayor Dean Mazzarella’s office. The DPW requested a study on Marguerite Avenue and the railroad tracks, United Materials Management and truck traffic on Route 117, and they also wanted a traffic study on the intersection of Johnson and Lancaster streets. Mazzarella requested a traffic study on the intersection of West Street and Pond Road.
Board members questioned how some of the requests were framed, noting that the submissions did not include much detail. “So, what can be done there though? I mean I’m just curious,” Planning Board Member Salvatore Ciccone said of the Marguerite Avenue request. Later adding, “They want a study of what?” As for the DPW’s request for a traffic study at the intersection of Johnson and Lancaster streets, Ciccone said, “For what? Are they going to put a light there? I don’t get that one either.”
Ciccone also described the Marguerite Avenue request as a low priority, stating, “They already did that twice in my lifetime,” after another member asked whether the study might relate to the street’s steepness.
As the discussion continued, members pointed to other trouble spots they wanted included, particularly around Lancaster Street at the entrance to Walmart and near the Starbucks on Jungle Road, where they said previously required traffic mitigation measures were never fully carried out. “They were supposed to change that whole intersection, reline it, restructure the turns,” Ciccone said of the Starbucks area. Later adding, “They didn’t do any of that.”
Members then proposed several additional locations of their own for inclusion, as the Department of Public Works and mayor’s requests were already moving forward separately, leaving the board to decide whether to add locations for UPWP consideration.
The additional locations the planning board chose to submit were:
- Route 117 and Jungle Road
- Grant Street and Central Street
- Willard Street and Central Street
- Union Street and Central Street
The board then voted unanimously to submit the list of additional locations for the Unified Planning Work Program project request.