Bringing to a close more than a year’s worth of work, the Newcastle Select Board decided at its meeting Monday, April 28 to submit its recommendations for two of the town’s major intersections to the Maine Department of Transportation to consider if the state decides to move forward with projects at either location in the future.
The final report follows close to a year of work by the Village Partnership Initiative, a Maine DOT program through which the department collaborated with the town, Wright-Pierce, an engineering firm based in Topsham; TYLin, a civil engineering firm based in Falmouth; and the Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission to study the intersections at River Road and Main Street and Academy Hill Road and Mills Road. The process included traffic studies and reviewing safety data as well as multiple opportunities for public input through three workshops, a series of meetings, and a community survey.
Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Emily Rabbe and engineers from TYLin and Wright-Pierce presented the preliminary report to the board during its meeting Feb. 10, at which they recommended a T-intersection where River Road meets Main Street and a four-way stop with a northbound slip lane where Mills Road and Academy Hill Road meet.
Those two recommendations were what board members chose on April 28 to forward to the DOT, with some modifications, after accepting the engineers’ revised final report.
Select board members expressed a preference for reconfiguring the existing intersection of River Road and Main Street – designated “Node 1” in the engineers’ report – into a raised T-intersection. The existing 16- and 14-foot wide travel lanes on Main Street would be reduced to 11 feet wide with 3-foot striped shoulders.
The plan includes 8-foot-wide parallel parking spaces and 5-foot sidewalks on both sides of the street, a pedestrian crosswalk with flashing beacons, decorative lighting, and added green space.
While engineers suggested the intersection will signal drivers to slow down as they enter the village, select board members expressed concerns for maintenance and repairs.
“I understand the recommendation for it to slow traffic, but with the inclusion of on-street parking up to Node 1, it might not be necessary,” said board member Ben Frey. “It’s not as necessary. Raised platforms are really hard on equipment, really hard on vehicles, and you got to paint them a lot more so that they’re clearly visible; and we only paint once a year.”
Board member Rufus Percy agreed, suggesting a raised surface area could be installed later, should the efforts to slow traffic not prove successful.
At the intersections of Academy Hill Road and Mills Roads – designated “Node 2” in the report – the board expressed support for four-way intersection, but expressing doubt a slip lane was necessary, recommended more work could be done to merge components of two proposals into one plan.
As described in the engineers’ report, Alternative 1 would reconfigure the existing intersection into a four-way stop intersection with no slip lane, but offer better sight lines. Alternative 2 would reconfigure the existing intersection into a four-way stop intersection with a one-way, stop-controlled slip lane for vehicles coming from the Route 1 off ramp traveling toward Damariscotta.
Both alternatives would narrow the travel lanes, expand sidewalks, and add signage and green space.
The board is not interested in moving forward with Alternative 3, which would have reconfigured the existing intersection into a roundabout.
“That is out of consideration,” Sutherland said in a phone interview Tuesday, April 29.
Acting on the suggestion resident Rob Nelson, the board agreed to add any plans for Newcastle should take into account the goals of the town’s comprehensive plan. Nelson reminded the board Newcastle’s comprehensive plans called for using land within the state’s right-of-way along Main Street to create something that could encourage people to enjoy Newcastle’s small downtown.
“We all know how big the Maine DOT land is through Main Street, from Node 2 to the bridge,” Nelson said. “A massive amount of property that this doesn’t really take advantage of and I think that the idea from the comp plan was we could use all that to do something cool. Whether it’s … angle parking … or whether it’s basically a linear park that connects Veterans (Memorial) Park to the bridge. We can do something that really makes a town center that could then be built on commercially and sort of encourages people to be there. In some ways, this plan undermines an effort to do that by just adding some parking spaces along the existing roadway, and I think that’s a missed opportunity.”
The recommendation will be sent to the DOT for consideration. Projects at either intersection are not included in the DOT’s work plan at this time.
Additionally, there may be funding questions at the state level that prevent any project from moving forward.
“It might be a few years before there’s a next step,” Sutherland said April 29. “The next step would be getting it on the work plan and doing the engineering, and the DOT have to find funding to even have engineers do the design work.”
Residents will have many chances to weigh in on the projects, if or when the DOT moves forward with either. Beyond public comments and feedback sessions, residents would need to consider funding 10% of the projects’ costs, which would require a vote at a town meeting, Sutherland said.
“We’ve taken the step to see what we want to do for Newcastle, but ultimately it’s the DOT’s project,” Sutherland said. “We’ll have some funding and some say in it, but it’s their project.”
In other business, the board reviewed and accepted the warrant for the annual town meeting, authorized Sutherland to proceed with the sale of a 40-foot Bangor ladder no longer needed by the Newcastle Fire Department and authorized the town office staff to begin exploring the process for discontinuing a public road.
Sutherland reported Robinson Road residents Molly Frost and Percy have suggested the town discontinue the road. There are two other property owners abutting Robinson Road, but Frost and Percy are the only property owners with a physical entrance on the road. With the approval of the select board, the next step is drafting a formal letter to the abutting property owners and gauging their interest, Sutherland said.
Percy said he appreciates the road being serviced by the town, but he has the tools and skills to maintain the road himself and he is reluctant to use his personal property to repair the town public property.
“That’s sort of where that’s coming from,” Percy said. “I’m watching the potholes get bigger and the ditch get smaller, and looking at my excavator sitting there, not using it.”
The vote authorizing the town office to proceed was 4-0-1, with Percy abstaining. Frey said the board’s decision simply begins the process of reaching a future decision, adding the process includes public hearings.
The next meeting of the Newcastle Select Board is 7 p.m. on Monday, May 12 at the Clayton V. Huntley Jr. Fire Station, at 86 River Road in Newcastle.
