Politics & Government

Traffic Calming Discussions to Resume This Month

Westwood officials will be seeking feedback on potential solutions to traffic calming issues on Dover Road and surrounding neighborhoods.

While a large number of drivers use back roads to avoid High Street traffic in the morning, they only save about five minutes of travel time, even while driving 10 miles an hour over the speed limit, Westwood officials learned last week.

In an update to the Westwood Board of Selectmen, Department of Public Works Director Vicki Quiram last Monday said about 500 left turns are taken from Dover Road to Conant Road on average during the morning rush hour commute.

"During peak morning hours, we have more people traveling on Dover Road than on High Street," Quiram said. "It's amazing."

Quiram's analysis came less than four months near High Rock Street, Dover Road, Conant Road, Country Lane and Lorraine Road - roads that drivers tend to use as cut throughs to avoid the heavy rush hour traffic.

Residents of those roads and elsewhere in town will be able to voice their concerns and input once again on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. in the Little Theater.

Since the last meeting on June 14, Quiram and representatives from Beta Group, Inc., which analyzed the area and recommended a number of solutions to the public, many of which the town is not prepared to pay for at the moment.

"The bottom line is there's no funding," Quiram said. "But we wanted the neighborhood to go ahead and talk about it."

At the last meeting, officials presented two potential plans that could address the issue.

One option comprised a process of multiple phases, involving the installation of various types of traffic deterrents like speed humps, raised intersections, raised islands or constructed "gateways" to certain neighborhoods. The plan would end up costing between $600,000 and $1.5 million, Quiram said.

As an alternative, if the town were to install 19 speed humps, the total would hover somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000.

"The higher-cost solutions were the solutions they were more interested in, because they preserved the aesthetics of the neighborhood," Quiram said.

And while the speed hump option would be less costly, it could also prove more difficult to deal with during the winter months, most notably when DPW crews would be out plowing the roads after inclement weather.

"We wold have to come back and do them later," Quiram expalined last Monday. "They will be plowed differently, and they get icy between them."

Selectmen Clerk Nancy Hyde said the mere maintenance of the humps could also prove to be a hassle.

"I'm extremely hesitant to think of these speed bumps and lumps as a real viable alternative because of the cost to maintain and the implications," she said.

Quiram and Beta Group are currently accepting input from the public via the town's website, where residents can view an explanation of the traffic-calming plan.

Officials will assess the acceptance of one of the plans on Oct. 26 and subsequently return to the Board of Selectmen to decide the next steps, Quiram said.


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