WESTBROOK – Should something be done about the intersection of Hardy/Duck Pond Road and Route 302, and if so, what would be the better way to make it safer: a traffic signal with turn lanes, or a roundabout?
These are the questions the state Department of Transportation will be addressing the next few months in response to calls for action by area residents, who met with department officials last week to discuss the problem.
“It is an intersection definitely worthy of analysis,” said Bruce Van Note, the department’s deputy commissioner.
About 30 people packed the Highland Lake Grange Hall, which is within sight of the intersection, Sept. 13. Among the assembled were Mayor Colleen Hilton, City Engineer Eric Dudley, State Rep. Ann Peoples, D-Westbrook, and City Councilor Mike Sanphy, who has been championing the cause on behalf of the worried local residents for months.
On one corner of the intersection sits the Highland Lake Variety store, a popular gas station and convenience store. On another, a shopping plaza, where owners have been discussing opening a restaurant. For some time now, residents have worried that line-of-sight issues, combined with the high volume of commuter traffic along Route 302, are a recipe for disaster.
“You’re playing Russian roulette trying to get out on 302,” said Peter Ives, 67, a Duck Pond Road resident. “It’s that bad. I’m just waiting for someone to get killed.”
Dale Perry, 71, who also lives on Duck Pond Road, said when there are enough vehicles at the store, it’s harder to see.
“You don’t have a clear view of traffic approaching from the east,” he said.
Steve Brown, 40, who lives on Mast Road, said traffic in and out of the store makes things even more difficult.
“Not only are you fighting 302, you’re fighting people getting gas and jumping out in front of you,” he said.
Even if the state decides something must be done, there’s no clear plan yet on what. Roundabouts are a fairly new idea to state engineers, with several recently installed in Gorham. Dudley strongly suggested a roundabout would fix the problem, where a simple trafficlight would back up traffic could cause its own set of problems.
“Rear-end accidents are going to increase,” he said.
Sanphy said he would rather see a traffic light, since a roundabout is more expensive and would take up more space, which could be a problem for the historic buildings in the area. The state put in a signal at a similar intersection further up the road, at Prides Corner, and while there are still some lingering safety issues there, too, Sanphy said, overall it has been an improvement.
“It works at Prides Corner, and I think it would work here, too,” Sanphy said.
Van Note said the intersection has an average of four crashes a year, enough to prompt the state to look into what can be done. Derek Olson, a traffic engineer for the department who also attended the meeting, said sometime this week an engineer from the state will do a traffic survey, literally sitting out at the intersection from 7 a.m.-7 p.m., counting traffic and observing patterns.
This, Olson said, is the first step, and the state will then analyze the data, and they won’t forget about seasonal traffic changes like in the summertime.
“The planners adjust for that,” he said.
Olson said the analysis should be finished in about a month, and both he and Van Note promised to return to discuss the matter in a similar public forum then.
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