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| The Town of Windham has formally asked the Maine Department of Transportation to conduct a speed study of Swett Road from Chute Road to Route 202 in an effort to protect public safety and prevent accidents. PHOTO BY ED PIERCE |
Acting upon a recommendation from Police Chief Kevin
Schofield, members of the Windham Town Council unanimously voted May 24 to
formally ask the Maine Department of Transportation to conduct a speedy study
on Swett Road from Chute Road to Route 202.
Council Chair Jarrod Maxfield said that the move is the first step in lowering the speed limit for motorists in that area from its current 35 mph designation. State law does not permit a town government to lower or raise speed limits and prioritizes requests for areas with demonstrated crash and safety issue histories.
In a memo to Windham Town Manager Barry Tibbetts, Schofield
said he received a letter and list of signatures from 16 residents of the Swett
Road and Chute Road areas requesting speed reduction for the section of Swett Road
from Chute Road to Route 202.
“Currently that section of road is a posted 35 mph road. The
road is predominantly rural, straight, and constructed of gravel,” Schofield
said. “This is no painted or sectioned off shoulder to the roadway or any pedestrian
or bike lane. The exception is the section of road from Chute Road toward Route
202.”
He said that the section is extremely curvy, with large trees immediately adjacent to the roadway creating poor visibility in addition to the lack of any bike or pedestrian vehicle separation.
“While, this section of road has yellow cautionary 25 mph
signs erected, statutory those signs are advisory only in nature and not the
posted enforceable speed limit,” Schofield said.
After receiving the citizen signatures, Schofield requested studies
of the volume of traffic crashes in that area over the past three years and
discovered there were three.
“I drove the section of roadway and based on my experience as
an emergency driver and past trainer, 35 mph feels too fast and extremely
unsafe and impractical in the mentioned curved section.
Schofield had the police department’s all-traffic solutions
road sign placed on Swett Road in the area traveling northwest toward Route 202
out of the curved area for one week. Of the 591 vehicles monitored that week,
the average speed was 29.1 mph.
He said another factor to consider in lowering the speed limit
there is the development of 22 homes nearby recently along with several new homes
in that area of Swett Road.
“This has undoubtedly increased volume of both pedestrian and
vehicular traffic in the past few years,” Schofield said.
As a result, Scholfield asked the town to make a request to
MDOT for a speed study as it pertains to the intersection of Chute Road though
the curved area of the road as you travel toward Route 202 on Swett Road.
Accidents in the last three years specific to that area
include one on July 3, 2019, when a car turned onto Swett from Chute, turned
wide and went in the ditch. On Feb. 19, 2021, a car went off the roadway on the
curve and hit a pole sustaining headlight and bumper damage to Another accident
happened on Aug. 13, 2021, at the intersection of Swett and Chute Roads when a
car was turning left on to Swett Road and hit the side of a car on Route 202
passing Swett Road.
Councilor Mark Morrison said he supported asking for the speed
study and said he has driven on that road and found it to be dangerous.
“The 35-mph speed limit on that road is not appropriate,”
Morrison said.
During the MDOT speed study engineers will examine the
geometric design of the road, public and private access points, number of
intersections, number of roadside businesses, observe travel speeds of traffic
and speed ranges, review total number of accidents there in a three-year time
frame, and conduct a series of test runs on that section of road driving a
certain speed, evaluating safety and drivability. <
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