The Maine Department of Transportation will seek public input on improvements to a Westbrook intersection with one of the highest crash rates in Cumberland County.
The project is more than a decade in the making at the Cumberland Mills traffic triangle, which is formed by Main Street, Cumberland Street and Harnois Avenue.
Map: 4 new traffic signals proposed in Westbrook
Construction is still more than a year away, but state officials will present their design to the public on Wednesday.
The proposal would add a traffic light at every intersection within the triangle – at Main and Cumberland streets, Cumberland Street and Warren Avenue, Cumberland Street and Harnois Avenue, and Harnois Avenue and Main Street.
The signals will be coordinated with one another.
“They are taking the existing configuration and trying to make it safer and more efficient,” City Administrator Jerre Bryant said.
The triangle has the third-highest crash rating in Cumberland County and the ninth-highest in the state.
Between 2012 and 2016, 166 crashes occurred there, according to the Maine Department of Transportation. Most are minor, but not all. In 2004, a van struck and killed a woman crossing Main Street.
The year after her death, a group of city and state officials recommended installing four traffic signals in the area. The city began to look for funding for that project, and the Westbrook City Council finally approved the plan in 2014.
“People end up taking risks to pull out when there may not be an adequate gap (between cars), and we hope that we reduce those occurrences with the signals,” MDOT project manager Brian Keezer said.
Most of the money for the $1.8 million project will come from the federal government, with small matches from the state and the city. Construction likely won’t begin until 2019.
“Since there’s federal money, there’s a lot to be completed and accomplished before you can put a shovel in the ground,” Keezer said.
The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in Room 114 of Westbrook High School.
Megan Doyle can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
mdoyle@pressherald.com
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