PERU — Over 20 residents attended a Maine Department of Transportation meeting Tuesday evening to provide input on the installation of sign posts at Route 108 and Main Street.

Project Manager Aurele Gorneau said the proposal was prompted by the high crash rate at the intersection.

Brett Hart, a consultant engineer with MDOT, said, “In the past three years, there have been 14 crashes at that intersection, and in the past 10 years, there were over 30 accidents.”

Sign posts would be erected on either side of the intersection for traffic waiting to drive across Route 108. Gorneau said each sign would have two LED lights, and there would be loop sensors in the roadway on Route 108 that would trigger the lights to flash, informing cars waiting at the intersection that a car on Route 108 is approaching.

Hart said the system would indicate whether a car was coming from the left or right.

State Rep. Richard Pickett, R-Dixfield, asked Hart if the system had a high success rate in other communities.

“The system hasn’t been installed long enough in Bangor to provide any concrete data,” Hart said. “However, the first system that was installed in Norridgewock was very successful. It helped reduce accidents significantly.”

Resident Glen Tompkins asked Gorneau why MDOT didn’t install a “stop-and-go traffic light” at the intersection.

“We get a lot of chemical trucks blowing through that intersection, and if we don’t get a traffic light in there, one of these days, one of those trucks is going to get into an accident and it’s going to be bad for the town,” Tompkins said.

Gorneau said traffic lights are installed at locations that “meet certain criteria set by a traffic signal warrant,” and if the intersection doesn’t meet the criteria, MDOT won’t install a traffic light.

Selectman Jim Pulsifer said he didn’t think a traffic light at the intersection would be a good idea, especially during the winter.

“If you get icy roads, big 18-wheeler trucks aren’t going to be able to stop in time for a red light,” Pulsifer said.

Gorneau said the project has a $60,000 budget, and that MDOT was aiming to advertise for the project at the end of June.

“Ideally, construction would begin at the beginning of July,” Gorneau said. “It’s not a big project, so it should only take a week.”

He said if there was money left in the project budget, MDOT might consider installing a traffic sensor for cars driving from Rumford into the intersection.

“That sensor would let cars driving from Rumford know if a car was pulling into the intersection from North Main Street or Main Street,” Gorneau said. “It’s not a definite thing. It’s all dependent on if there’s money left in the project budget.”

mdaigle@sunmediagroup.net

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