A CLOSER LOOK
The Maine Department of Transportation’s public hearing on a $5 million plan for reconstructing portions of William Clarke Drive is Monday, Jan. 12, at 6 p.m., in Room 114 at Westbrook High School.
A safer, slower William Clarke Drive is coming in the near future – and residents will get the chance to hear all about the plan this month.
Representatives from the Maine Department of Transportation will be in Westbrook on Monday, Jan. 12, to give an overview of the $5 million reconstruction of William Clarke Drive and answer questions at a public hearing.
Mark Latti, spokesman for the transportation department, said the work planned for about a mile of the road, from Saco Street to Westbrook Arterial, would improve the flow of traffic and make it safer for pedestrians and motorists.
Police Chief Bill Baker said he’s noticed, based on the difficulty of crossing the street and the number of accidents that occur on it, the road is problematic.
“It certainly seems to me that road has some design challenges,” he said.
Baker noted that it’s hard to tell whether pedestrians are waiting for buses or trying to cross the street, and because there are no signals at many of the intersections, they have to “take bold action to get across,” he said.
At the same time, Baker said, drivers who slam on their brakes when they see someone trying to cross the road run the risk of getting rear-ended – something he said happens regularly.
Earlier this year, City Engineer Eric Dudley said the improvements to William Clarke Drive would include adding a sidewalk to the south side of the street, redesigning the intersection with Westbrook Arterial, constructing a raised, landscaped median and adding left-turn lanes at Stroudwater, Spring, Brackett and Mechanic streets. New traffic signals would be added at Mechanic and Brackett streets, as well.
Latti said construction for the project is slated to being in the spring, starting with a repaving of the road, followed by the addition of traffic signals, then improvements to the intersection and, finally, the extension of the sidewalks, which should be complete by the summer of 2010.
The project has been in the works for a long time. According to City Administrator Jerre Bryant, around 2000, the city planned to pay for improvements to William Clarke Drive through the downtown tax increment financing district. However, the money never accumulated and the project was handed over to the Department of Transportation, which asked that the road be redesigned in phases, delaying the project again.
Bryant said enough taxes have been generated now from downtown businesses to pay for the improvements, in conjunction with state highway funding.
Last fall, Dudley said, officials at the Department of Transportation decided that the $5 million project could be completed all at once.
According to Dudley, the road, originally called Wayside Drive, was built in the late 1960s as a bypass for commuters from the west, so that they could avoid driving through the city’s downtown. However, the road comes between Main Street and a dense residential population, making it dangerous for those residents who want to walk to the parks and businesses downtown.
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