Gray,
DOT officials met to discuss Gray traffic
By Elizabeth Prata
Gray--Last Friday, Gray Town Manager Mitchell A. Berkowitz
met with Department of Transportation officials in
Stimson Hall to discuss various solutions that would
modify the traffic in Gray Center. Also present were
Town Planner Dick Cahill, and Councilors Gary Foster
and Richard Hall. Attending from the DOT were traffic
Engineers Randy Dunton from the Scarborough bureau
and Steve Landry from the Augusta division.
Several citizens were there to observe.
The session was to brainstorm ways to deal with the
increasing amount of traffic that travel through Gray
Center, a state crossroads hub where five state routes
converge just a few hundred feet from a busy Turnpike
exit. Original models had projected that traffic would
increase 2% per year but it has increased 4% or more
each year. Above, the Intersection from above.
The three-lanes are Rt 202 coming from the Turnpike
exit. The long brown building in the upper center
of the photo is One Gray Center.
From a transportation engineering standpoint, the
issues are two-fold, capacity and volume, said Mr.
Dunton. Gray's volumes of traffic, combined with a
constricted intersection, has resulted in a Level
F, or failed, intersection at peak times. There is
not much that can be done about volume, except persuade
the Maine Turnpike Authority to remove the barrier
toll at New Gloucester. Trucks divert at Auburn and
travel down Rt. 100 in New Gloucester and Gray to
avoid the toll and then re-enter the turnpike at Gray's
Exit 63. The proposed Bypass is supposed to reduce
some of the volume as well, but the project is not
slated for completion until at least 2007.
Meanwhile, there is some tweaking that can be done
to improve capacity and flow of current volumes of
traffic. One example is the crossing from Brown Street
(with McDonald's on the right) to Rt. 26/Shaker Rd.
(with statue of the Civil War Soldier on the right).
The intersection is misaligned. Aligning that would
ease the confusion turning cars show when they are
unsure of whether to cross before or behind each other.
Other ideas discussed were to make Brown Street a
dead end, or one way. Mr. Hall, a Brown Street resident,
noted that homes on Brown Street cannot receive rural
mail delivery as the traffic is currently configured.
Another idea was to make the street one-way at one
end and two-way at another end, so that the approximately
ten businesses on Brown Street would not lose access
for their customers.
The point of all scenarios discussed were to gain
green light times at the main intersection and help
traffic flow more smoothly.
The DOT will run computer modeling of the scenarios.
Mr. Dunton said that the DOT has the statistics already
because of the modeling done to prepare for the Bypass
design. Mr. Dunton and Mr. Landry said that they could
prepare the modeling within two weeks. The modeling
will show how many seconds are gained at each light
and how many cars can progress through, as well as
any unintended impacts that might arise.
Mr. Berkowitz sad that he was pleased that the two
DOT officials took time to come down and discuss options
with the group. He was also pleased to have received
citizen input and is hopeful that when the group reconvenes
in late March or early April that an official from
the Maine Turnpike Authority (MTA) will be at the
table too. Mr. Berkowitz said that the Town is carefully
reviewing all local options that would help improve
the intersection before requesting that the MTA listen
seriously to local concerns that the barrier toll
is a contributor to the Town's traffic woes. Mr. Foster
was firm on that point as well.
