On Rt. 1 in front of the town office in Waldoboro, construction work has begun on a Maine Dept. of Transportation intersection improvement project that raised concerns with several residents during public hearings on the project over the last year.
The traffic-calming project will add raised islands, left-turn lanes and lighted crosswalks, and will reduce the speed limit to 35 miles per hour, at the intersection of Rt. 1, Jefferson Street and Depot Street.
The $400,000-plus project will be paid with federal money and will not involve any town expense. The town will be responsible for maintaining the solar-powered units that run the lights embedded in the crosswalks.
For the last year, as the project moved through public hearings and was discussed several times at meetings of the Waldoboro Board of Selectmen, residents have repeatedly called for a traffic light at the intersection or no change at all.
Unfortunately for those seeking a light, there is a set of federal guidelines governing which intersections get traffic signals. DOT is bound by those guidelines, said Stephen Landry, DOT’s Assistant State Traffic Engineer at several meetings.
Federal standards outline eight warrants for determining whether an intersection merits a traffic signal. If an intersection meets any of the eight warrants, a light can be added. This intersection does not meet any of those warrants, Landry said.
The traffic-calming project does not preclude a traffic light being added in the future, and in fact puts many changes in place that would need to be made if a light were to be added.
“Hopefully, when all is said and done, it is an improvement,” said Interim Town Manager Eileen Dondlinger on April 19.
Dondlinger said she remembers seeing traffic counts over the years that show usage of the intersection increasing over time, so “maybe in the future a light will be warranted,” she said.
The islands are positioned so as not to completely block entry to any of the four businesses at the intersection. However, the Rt. 1 entrance to Dennis Blanchet’s Old Mill Mall will be cut off from left turns in or out. Patrons will still have access to his business from Depot Street, but Blanchet is concerned about the impact it will have on business.
“I’m going to lose 50 percent of my business if people can’t turn in off Rt. 1” going north, Blanchet said. “I’m not a multi-million-dollar company; I can’t afford that.”
Landry said the DOT has offered to provide Blanchet with two signs: one just before his business directing north-bound traffic up Depot Street and one just after his business directing north-bound traffic into the town office driveway, which can be used to connect back around to his business.
