This section of Main Street has gotten narrower for vehicular traffic. PHOTO/JERRY SPAR

During Tuesday’s Select Board meeting, board member Shahidul Mannan asked Town Manager Norman Khumalo for an explanation about the narrow roadway on the western portion of the Main Street Corridor Project.

The town elected to widen the newly reconfigured roadway this fall following complaints from residents and concerns that emergency vehicles would not be able to pass easily through traffic.

“It’s not a design flaw, it met all the MassDOT [Massachusetts Department of Transportation] standards for the width that it was, but I guess when town staff saw it in the ground they wanted it to exceed the minimum requirements by the MassDOT,” Select Board chair Amy Ritterbusch said.

Concurred Khumalo: “It’s our judgment that Hopkinton would be better served with a wider corridor.”

Mannan questioned where the funding was coming from to pay for the widening.

“We know that our partners at MassDOT are funding the adjustments that were made on the southern side of the corridor,” Khumalo said. “We are still in discussions with MassDOT about what might need to be done or adjusted on the northern side.”

Khumalo added that he did not anticipate that the widening of the northern side of the road would extend the project past its scheduled October 2023 completion date.