Sutton, Massachusetts is a rural town - but the heavily traveled Route 146 goes down one edge of Sutton. A concerted effort is being made to remove all traffic lights from 146, so that it's a straight shot down from Worcester into Rhode Island.

2007 Plans
As part of this, the traffic light by Tony's Pizza is going to be replaced in the next few years - with an overpass exchange. They are going to build a Stop & Shop on the western side south of the current light, along with a few other shops. They expect this to be open in early 2008.

Across the highway, they are going to put in Cold Spring Brook Place. This will have a 137k square foot Lowe's, a Pub 99 and a McDonalds. They expect the Lowe's to be open at the end of 2008.

2009 Plans
As you can see, life in Sutton moves VERY slowly. First, they have given up on the overpass exchange. Apparently the Big Dig and other Massachusetts projects have sucked the money out of the highway department. So even though Sutton is moving forward with the various construction projects, we are not going to have an overpass exchange to handle the traffic. Traffic currently backs up very dangerously during rush hour at the light by Tony's Pizza. We will have to see what happens when there are shopping centers also drawing traffic into this area.

The Stop & Shop hasn't moved forward at all. I hear rumors about them working on wetland zoning issues, but I am not sure. No actual ground-breaking activity has begun.

The Cold Spring Brook Place side equally has stalled, apparently because of the economy.

However, northbound Route 146 does have activity as of spring / summer 2009. Many people (including me!) thought this was the Lowes project getting started. However, it became clear fairly quickly that the building they were working on wasn't a Lowes. It had a row of bay doors as if for trucks to pull up and unload. Even though it's right near where the Lowes network should be going in, it is in fact the Atlas box Company relocating and expanding.

Here are photos from June 2, 2009. You can see the location by the first image - it's on the northbound side of 146 as you approach the traffic light by Tony's Pizza.

This is going to make traffic in here even more challenging, as trucks are getting on and off right by the entrance ramp from Central Turnpike.

The Villages of Sutton