The grand opening of the MGM casino and hotel in Springfield should serve as a roadmap for those of you out there who believe that Everett is going to be inundated, maybe even drowned, in traffic when the casino opens in June, 2019.
More than 150,000 people turned out for the first three days of the MGM’s existence.
By all appearances the opening was a grand success, and we congratulate MGM for its success.
MGM had to have 3,000 employees on hand for the opening manning all the various responsibilities and jobs.
Dozens of State Police augmented by dozens of Springfield police made efforts to alleviate the traffic, rather, to control it.
Downtown Springfield was buried in traffic.
Again, MGM’s success is wonderful.
But what happens here when Encore opens its magnum opus hotel and casino and maybe 300,000 to 400,000 show up for the grand opening during the first week?
Chaos – controlled chaos and a tidal wave of traffic so thick a dozen bulldozers couldn’t get through it.is what will likely occur.
Planning being done now, and the implementation of traffic improvements being made in and around the casino from the Charlestown rotary all the way to the Everett rotary are going to help move traffic.
But no amount of such improvements are going to lessen the traffic which right now clogs up the roads.
If public officials want to do something useful, they should be talking honestly with traffic experts to prepare for the crush – and it is going to be a mountain of traffic.