New Gloucester is considering making changes at the intersection of Intervale, Cobbs Bridge, and Gloucester Hill roads.
The intersection currently has stop signs for Cobbs Bridge and Gloucester Hill roads, but not Intervale Road, and residents have criticized the intersection as being dangerous due to line-of-sight issues. Under a plan from the Maine Department of Transportation and Greater Portland Council of Governments, the intersection would be reconfigured into an all-way stop, with the installation of four LED-flashing stop signs on Intervale Road. The four existing signs would have reflective vertical strips placed along the entire length of the post.
Residents gave their two cents on the proposed reconfiguration at a public hearing March 24.
Dennis Emidy, a safety engineer from MDOT, has been working with the town on the project for several years. A major problem with the intersection is sight distance, he said, which is limited by a vertical grade to only 250 feet, well below MDOT’s safe stopping distance of 335 feet for a 30-mph intersection.
Over the past decade, the intersection has seen 12 crashes, with injuries happening at a much higher rate than what would be expected at an intersection of that traffic volume, Emidy said. The intersection has an annual average daily traffic of 6,207 vehicles.
Converting the intersection into an all-way stop is the most economically feasible option, Emidy said. Other all-way stops in Maine, he said, had reduced crashes by 66%, and injuries by 78%. No vehicular fatality has occurred at an all-way stop in Maine since at least 2003.
Resident Rachel Spencer-Reed said she and her family had been involved in an accident on the intersection in late 2020, which totaled their vehicle and severely traumatized their youngest child. Spencer-Reed talked about how the design of the intersection makes it difficult for drivers to slow down in time, and said she was strongly in favor of the proposed changes.
Resident Don Libby said he was concerned about how slippery conditions in winter affect people trying to stop at the intersection while driving downhill, the potential for road salt to contaminate wells, and the flashing stop sign lights being a nuisance for neighboring homes. Libby suggested installing less obtrusive signs before switching to an all-way stop.
New Gloucester Public Works Director Ben Tinker acknowledged there are other options, such as reducing vegetation around the intersection to improve visibility, but that an all-way stop is still the best and most likely option.