FARMINGTON — The state’s plan to reconfigure lanes on Wilton Road brought mixed reactions at Tuesday night’s public hearing.

About 45 residents and officials listened to Maine Department of Transportation engineer Dennis Emidy explain his reasoning for changing Routes 2 and 4 from four lanes to three lanes and a left-turn lane from the hospital to Center Bridge.

During a study from 2011 to 2013, there were 158 crashes along the 2.8-mile stretch, Emidy said. In other places where traffic lanes were reconfigured, accidents decreased 29 percent, he said.

For some in the audience Tuesday, the idea of a single lane to handle the high volume of traffic now traveling in two lanes was difficult to accept.

Mike Chase said he respected and understood the work done by MDOT and the town’s Traffic Safety Committee but totally disagreed with idea.

Twelve years ago, Chase said he was in charge of a Verizon fiber cable project on the road from Bridge Street to the McCleery Farm. His crew took over one lane of traffic to make the installation and caused the worst traffic jam in the town’s history, he said. 

Business owner Willard Hatch also disagreed with the proposed change.

“We built the road in 1984 to solve a problem,” he said. It was changed from two lanes to four to accommodate traffic. To merge two lanes into one will either slow traffic or cause more accidents, he said.

Selectman Michael Fogg said he visited several Wilton Road businesses to ask if owners thought the plan would make it better or worse for them. They didn’t think it would be worse, he said.

Drivers leaving a business now have to worry about traffic in four lanes. With the turning lane, they would only have to consider crossing  two lanes and entering the turning lane, he said.

The plan also includes a 7-foot lane on both sides for pedestrians and bicyclists and for vehicles to pull over.

Some residents asked about painting the new lanes now to try them before the MDOT road project in 2017.

The current lines would need to be ground out and repainted, Emidy said. The town would have to absorb the cost for the work prior to MDOT’s construction.

Costs associated with adding a fifth lane prohibit that idea, Town Manager Richard Davis said.

In places where MDOT has made similar lane changes, none have been changed back and the number of crashes has decreased, Emidy said.

The Board of Selectmen is expected to decide whether to accept the state’s recommendation.

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