Following its review of a traffic engineering report on travel safety on the residential Key Rock Road, the Police Commission has approved creating additional speed tables there to better control motorists’ travel speeds on the 4,500-foot-long north-south connector road.

Key Rock Road connects Sugar Street (Route 302) to the intersection of Hattertown Road and Poverty Hollow Road. The Police Commission has been reviewing Key Rock Road traffic safety in its role as the traffic authority.

For the past several years, Key Rock Road has had two speed tables, which are broad speed bumps. They are positioned on the northern section of that street in the area lying between its intersections with Sugar Street (Route 302) and with North Branch Road. Key Rock Road has 20-mph speed limit.

Garrett Bolella, a traffic engineer with Frederick P. Clark Associates Inc of Fairfield, presented that firm’s traffic safety analysis of Key Rock Road to Police Commission members earlier this month.

One of the main travel speed problems on Key Rock Road involves motorists who rapidly exit westbound Sugar Street and then enter southbound Key Rock Road traveling at speeds much higher than Key Rock Road’s posted 20-mph speed limit.

To address that problem, the existing speed table on Key Rock Road that in nearest to Sugar Street will be removed and another speed table will be constructed closer to Sugar Street to replace it.

The new speed table, which will be positioned about 300 feet from the intersection with Sugar Street, will have a gentler slope than the speed table that it replaces. The existing speed table lies about 1,000 feet from Key Rock Road’s intersection with Sugar Street.

Also, the existing speed table on Key Rock Road just north of its intersection with North Branch Road will remain in place, but will be modified so that it has a gentler slope.

Southern Section Speed Tables

Additionally, two new speed tables will be added to the southern section of the street — one near 31 Key Rock Road and the other near 47 Key Rock Road.

While the northern section of Key Rock Road is relatively straight and flat, the southern section of Key Rock Road contains tight curves and sharp slopes.

The new speed tables to be installed near 31 and 47 Key Rock Road would be positioned in areas considered to be the safest for speed tables, when considering the generally hilly, curving geometry of the southern section of the road.

When speed tables are installed, many traffic signs and pavement markings and placed nearby to warn motorists that there is an obstruction on the roadway.

Fred Hurley, town public works director, said the speed table construction work on Key Rock Road is planned to occur in late July, when the town does some repaving work on that street. 

The Police Commission’s review of Key Rock Road traffic issues, resulting in the initial installation of two speed tables and the planned addition of more speed tables, has stemmed from residents’ complaints about pedestrian safety on the street in light of speeding motorists there.