State Offers Traffic Signal At Mile Hill-Queen Intersection

By Andrew Gorosko

The state Department of Transportation (DOT) has indicated it is “receptive” to installing a traffic signal at the heavily traveled intersection of Mile Hill Road, Queen Street, and Tinkerfield Road.

In a June 20 letter to State Rep Julia Wasserman, DOT Commissioner James F. Byrnes, Jr, writes, “In view of the difficulties that have been reported regarding school buses and other left-turning vehicles [from Queen Street], the [DOT] is receptive to signalization in a future traffic signal project.”

Mr Byrnes adds that the estimated cost of traffic signal installation is $70,000, of which the town would be responsible for covering $7,000. Mr Byrnes asks that the town formally notify the DOT whether it wants a traffic signal installed at the intersection. It would take up to two years for traffic signal installation.

In a February 5 letter to Mr Byrnes, Mrs Wasserman had urged that the DOT investigate how traffic safety could be improved at the intersection. The intersection carried heavy school bus traffic following the January opening of Reed Intermediate School.

“Left-hand turns…from Queen Street onto [eastbound] Mile Hill Road…are unnerving and dangerous for motorists. There is no other access from the west into the [Fairfield Hills] campus to the east,” Mrs Wasserman wrote.

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal said July 2 he will wait to hear from the Police Commission and the police chief on whether it would be wise to install a traffic signal at the intersection. The Police Commission is the town’s traffic authority.

Potential changes in school bus routes for next school year may make having a traffic signal there unnecessary, Mr Rosenthal said. The presence of a traffic signal there may create traffic-related problems in the area, such as motorists approaching the intersection from certain directions and suddenly, unexpectedly encountering a stopped line of traffic waiting at a red traffic signal, he said.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe said the Police Commission is awaiting information on planned school bus routes for next school year before deciding whether to endorse having a traffic signal at the intersection.

If school bus routes change next school year, a traffic signal may not be necessary there, he said. “We really can’t make any decisions [yet] because there are so many unknowns,” the police chief said.

During the second half of the past school year, the intersection carried heavy school bus traffic, especially on weekday mornings before Reed Intermediate School opened. After dropping off students in Grades 7 and 8 at Newtown Middle School, about 30 school buses then proceeded to drop off more students in Grades 5 and 6 at Reed Intermediate School at Fairfield Hills.

In his letter to Mrs Wasserman, Mr Byrnes wrote that if a traffic signal were installed at the four-way offset intersection, there would need to be separate traffic signal phasing for both Queen Street and for Tinkerfield Road. Also, “right turns on red” likely would be prohibited from Queen Street and from Tinkerfield Road, he added. 

Mr Byrnes noted that the town had rerouted most school bus traffic in order to reduce the number of school buses that make left turns from Queen Street onto Mile Hill Road.

Mr Byrnes wrote that to simplify making left turns from southbound South Main Street onto eastbound Mile Hill Road, the DOT plans to increase the timing of the southbound green left-turn arrow on the existing traffic signal at that intersection.

Also, to improve general traffic flow in the area, the DOT is studying whether a green left-turn arrow can be installed for traffic that is turning left from westbound Glover Avenue onto southbound South Main Street at the intersection of Glover Avenue, South Main Street, Sugar Street, and Main Street, Mr Byrnes adds.