RUMFORD – Selectmen said they will do whatever it takes to convince the Maine Department of Transportation to designate a truck route around Route 2.

“There’s a lot more traffic now than when it was built. It’s a issue of safety,” Selectman Jolene Lovejoy said.

MDOT Division 7 Manager Norm Haggan attended Thursday’s selectmen’s meeting to hear concerns from the board and from some of the more than 20 people who came to the meeting.

“The residents of this area need to know they are safe,” Lovejoy said.

Board Chairman Jim Thibodeau took the issue one step further.

“Sometimes we have to take a stand to be morally correct,” he said. “I’ve seen many near misses in the Hancock Street area. We must do what is morally correct.”

Haggan said when the suggestion first surfaced about a year ago to try to reroute truck traffic off Route 2 in the downtown Rumford area, the MDOT conducted a traffic survey. That study noted 19 trucks heading eastbound and 23 westbound in a 12-hour period, an amount that was not overly burdensome to the section of Route 2 that travels from the intersection of Hancock Street and Lincoln Avenue to the intersection of Franklin Street and Route 108.

Studies also showed that only one accident occurred in the targeted section involving tractor-trailer trucks during 2002, he said.

In addition, he said, since the proposed truck route would also bypass the business district of Mexico, the opinions of the Mexico Board of Selectmen had to be considered.

That board, backed by the opinion of more than 50 Mexico businesses, decided not to support a truck route.

As proposed, such a bypass would leave Route 2 at the Mexico Veterans’ Bridge, meet with Route 108, which would then travel across Morse Bridge in Rumford, then up Falls Hill. It would cut out travel into Mexico, then up Lincoln Avenue in Rumford and through several other streets before intersecting with Route 108 on the west end of Morse Bridge.

Haggan said the MDOT decided not to designate a truck route because it wanted both Rumford and Mexico to support it.

“Mexico felt it would affect business,” said Haggan. “Mexico was concerned that with a truck route, cars would follow, and they are probably right. As a department, we pay a lot of attention to economic matters.”

Thibodeau said travelers could be directed to both Mexico and Rumford businesses through attractive, appropriately placed signs at each end of the bypass. He also questioned whether the MDOT paid more attention to economics than to safety. Haggan said the department considers both of great importance.

Thibodeau emphasized further that the board was morally obligated to get the bypass in place for the safety of both Rumford and Mexico residents.

Haggan said he would meet with the Mexico town manager to further discuss the proposal, then meet with Rumford Town Manager Robert Welch.

Lovejoy said the issue was not going to be dropped.

“If the response is not favorable, we will circulate a petition in Rumford and Mexico,” she said.

eadams@sunjournal.com

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