The town of Warren received a Downtown Transportation Fund grant in the amount of $114,312 for traffic and speeding reduction in the village. The project has been in the works for more than a year. Last fall, the select board led a walkabout in the village with VHB engineering consultants and local residents to discuss concerns and possible solutions. The select board has worked with VHB, Rachel Grant of Clarkbrook Design, the Division of Historic Preservation and L and D Safety Markings to develop a proposal to calm speeding and traffic in the village. Warren residents heard about the select board’s proposal for Phase One of the project on November 29, 2022.
Select board member Bob Ackland presented the draft proposal, focusing particularly on striping and intersection squaring on Fuller Hill. One potential solution to curb speeding on Fuller Hill onto Main Street is adding a rain garden, designed by Clarkbrook, to the intersection of Fuller Hill and Main Street, as well as moving the current stop sign to the intersection.
Residents who live in the vicinity voiced concerns over having the rain garden and stop sign in that location, including the aesthetics of it, narrowing the road and whether larger vehicles could pass, as well as the rain garden being in the way of snow removal. After the discussion, the select board agreed to “eliminate the rain garden at the intersection of Fuller Hill and Main Street, replacing it with striping to square the intersection and eliminate arching towards the north. The stop sign will be squared up to the corner with no path or striping,” Ackland said in an email.
Other measures the select board decided to take included “narrow the pedestrian path at the bend at the south end of Main Street as you approach Route 100 to 3 feet. The east bridge on Brook Road will be striped to one lane to accommodate the pedestrian path. The pedestrian path on North Main Street will be done as presented,” which includes centerline grinding, reducing travel lanes to 10 feet and adding a 3-foot pedestrian lane from Brook Road to the park and ride on the west side of North Main Street.
The complete plan with these changes will be done in the early spring of 2023. “All of this striping is to understand better what works and doesn’t,” Ackland said. “The results will be visited in mid-summer, and adjustments and additions will be made in the balance of 2023. The overall impact is narrowing the roads within Warren Village to slow drivers down.”
