Police Chief James Viadero has assured a group of Toddy Hill Road residents that a range of safety improvements recently recommended by a traffic engineering firm to create safer travel conditions on that street will soon be implemented.

Chief Viadero spoke at an October 2 Police Commission meeting to a core group of several Toddy Hill Road residents who have been attending commission meetings since the spring of 2017 to urge better control of speeding motorists on that town road, which links Sandy Hook to Botsford.

Over the past year, police have heightened their vehicular monitoring on Toddy Hill Road, using patrol officers to heavily enforce traffic laws. Police also have posted a large portable electronic speed display to warn motorists who exceed the posted 30-mph speed limit.

Also, the town hired a traffic engineering firm to study the problem and make recommendations for travel safety improvements.

Chief Viadero told the residents that by the end of October, two stationary, solar-powered electronic speed displays will be installed along Toddy Hill Road. The devices display the posted speed limit in the area, as well as approaching vehicles’ speeds, thus alerting motorists who exceed the speed limit.

Also, a rumble strip will be installed along the road’s center lines, he said. Such rumble strips cause a vehicle’s tires to noticeably vibrate when the rumble strip is crossed, alerting motorists that they are in the center of the road.

Additionally, new road striping will be done, including the painting of white stripes along the edge of the road, which are known as shoulder lines or fog lines, the chief said. New “stop bars” will be painted on roads intersecting with Toddy Hill Roads at places where stop signs are installed on those side streets, and some new traffic signs will be installed.

At the October 2 session, resident Candide Slinko of Toddy Hill Road said that the stop bar that is painted on the northern end of Toddy Hill Road at its recently reconstructed intersection with Berkshire Road should be located farther south or farther away from the traffic signal there, for safety reasons. Doing so would improve motorist sight line problems at the intersection, according to Ms Slinko.

Chief Viadero responded that the location of the stop bars at that intersection was determined by the state Department of Transportation, not the Town of Newtown. The town will check whether removing some vegetation in that area would improve intersection sight lines for motorists, the chief said.