Crosswalk Installation Begins In Center Of Town

By Shannon Hicks

Six members of the town’s Public Works Department installed the first of two raised crosswalks planned near Newtown Middle School on September 11. It took just a few hours to install the crosswalk, which is intended to slow traffic and make it safer for pedestrians, especially students from the nearby middle school, to cross the street in the congested area.

Milton Adams, Pete Daccolti, John Ferris, Jim Gillette, Ted Hunt, and Dave Peck began their job just after 7:30 Thursday morning. Shortly after noon the crosswalk — and its 480-plus bolts, anchors, and washers — had been installed. All that was left was the installation of a sign alerting oncoming drivers of the new crosswalk’s location and a painted grid in the yards prior to the crosswalk that is also meant to alert drivers of the crosswalk’s existence. That work was completed by the end of Thursday afternoon.

“The warning paint was there Thursday night,” Public Works Director Frederick Hurley said earlier this week. “We had a guy sitting there to watch the area for a while, and the only people that seemed to be really surprised by [the crosswalk] were the people on their cellphones. They were clearly not paying attention to any of the signage.

“It was the people who weren’t paying attention that were the most surprised,” he continued. “You drive over that at a reasonable speed, it’s not that bad. If you’re on the phone, or you’ve got a cup of coffee in your hand, and you’re not paying attention, it’s going to catch your attention.

“If the kids are going to be using the crosswalk now, we really want people to pay attention. That was the purpose of putting that into place,” he said.

The raised crosswalk is on Glover Avenue, just north of its intersection with Meadow Street. It is a new location for a crosswalk. A second raised crosswalk is planned to go in place of an existing crosswalk on Queen Street just south of its intersection with Lorraine Drive.

The new devices are elevated above the road surface. The raised crosswalks are constructed of segments of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a rugged plastic that withstands the rigors of traffic flow.

The devices function as both crosswalks and broad speed bumps, known as “speed tables,” which are designed to slow the flow of traffic.

The crosswalks are not going to be pulled up once winter and plowing time arrives, believes Mr Daccolti. “We’re going to have to learn to plow over them,” he said last week. “This winter is going to be a test run.”

The town had initially planned to have the two raised crosswalks in place before school resumed for the 2008-09 academic year on August 27, but delays, including resolving a stormwater drainage issue, have resulted in the construction starting later than planned, town Public Works Director Fred Hurley told The Bee in August. Mr Hurley expects both crosswalks to be in place before the end of this month, and the installation on September 11 of the first crosswalk puts that plan back on track.

The installation of raised crosswalks follows repeated urgings from nearby residents that the town take steps to better control traffic in the congested area near Newtown Middle School.

By earlier this week, Mr Hurley had heard from only a few residents about the new addition to the town’s center.

“We had only two calls come in over the weekend about them, which was a little surprising,” he said Monday morning. “One caller said it was a good idea for the neighborhood and Thank You, and another person called to let us know there was some water buildup. We’ll have to clean up the gutter line a little, and keep an eye on that.”

By the end of the work day Monday, a town crew had been dispatched to the corner of Glover Avenue and Meadow Street once again, this time to put asphalt down in the corners of the installation.

Next for this project will be a study of the traffic count on Glover Avenue and Queen Street to see if the crosswalk creates a different traffic flow followed shortly thereafter by the second crosswalk’s installation.

“We’re going to let things settle for about a week, and then take a traffic count to see what, if any, impact there is on traffic patterns,” said Mr Hurley. “We have the numbers going back to the [2006 Queen Street Area Traffic Improvement Plan] done two years ago, and this is something we promised people we would be aware of, of any changes in traffic patterns.

“I don’t know that that one, on Glover, is going to divert anyone anyway, but you don’t know. There may be some small change, that’s hard to measure, but that’s what we’re going to watch for,” he continued.

The traffic study and any subsequent changes in location for the Queen Street crosswalk, if needed, will be decided upon within a week, Mr Hurley estimated.

“We’re not talking about a big delay here,” he emphasized. “Unless we run into problems with this one we already have in, we should be able to move on to the next one soon. So far so good, though.”

Glover Avenue resident Joan Crick agreed.

“It isn’t the prettiest thing,” she said Wednesday afternoon, “but it’s slowing the traffic.”