Police Commission Considers Traffic Aspects Of NHS Expansion

By Andrew Gorosko

Police Commission members, who also serve as the town’s traffic authority, have urged planners for the proposed Newtown High School expansion to keep the commission informed of the traffic aspects of the estimated $47.3 million project as it evolves in the coming months.

Thomas Gissen, a Board of Education member; Joe Costa, an architect on the project; Barry Blades, a landscape architect; and Michael Galante, a traffic engineer, met with Police Commission members September 5 to explain preliminary planning for the high school expansion project.

In June, the school board endorsed a $47.3 million proposal to add numerous classrooms, laboratories, a new cafeteria and warming kitchen, an elevator, and an expanded gymnasium to the high school. The school addition could be as large as 92,400 square feet, depending upon which expansion options are selected. Constructing a high school addition would be subject to voters’ approval at a referendum.

Mr Gissen told Police Commission members that school board members considered at length what new facilities are needed before they endorsed the school expansion project. The school board is seeking to balance providing a public education to students with cost-effectiveness, he said. The school board has hired experts in school expansion projects to aid it in planning, he said.

“We’re already overcrowded,” Mr Gissen said, noting that portable classrooms have been installed at the high school grounds to provide additional student space. The high school now has more than 1,600 students, he said, adding that the proposed addition would increase the school’s capacity to 2,137 students.

Mr Costa said the project planners are still at an information-gathering phase of the project and want the Police Commission’s views.

Mr Blades described the expansion project’s layout in relation to the existing school, noting that 74 parking spaces would be added to the site. The existing school driveway, which intersects with Berkshire Road, would remain at its present location, he said. That driveway handles all entering and exiting traffic at the site. Existing school bus traffic patterns at the site would continue, he said.

Mr Gissen noted that the high school lies in a traffic-prone area on Berkshire Road (Route 34), near that road’s intersection with Wasserman Way, and in the vicinity of Interstate 84’s Exit 11 interchange.

Police Commission member Richard Simon said commission members are concerned about the congested traffic conditions that occur near the school. Heavy traffic conditions on Route 34 need to be alleviated, he said.

Mr Simon said that the hundreds of private autos that are used to transport students to and from school pose a “big problem” in terms of traffic congestion. Reducing that type of traffic would alleviate congestion in the area, he said. 

“The [school] buses are considerably empty in the mornings,” said Police Commission Chairman Carol Mattegat, noting that many students choose not to ride on school buses.

Process Beginning

Mr Galante said, “We’re really at the beginning of the process,” noting that no formal traffic studies have yet been done for the high school expansion project.

Mr Galante noted that the state Department of Transportation (DOT) plans to reconfigure the Exit 11 interchange to make it a simpler interchange. He added he expects that the state will create more travel lanes on roads in the area to facilitate traffic flow.

Project planners need to study traffic flow near the high school to gauge how to best design the expansion project, he said. “I don’t have the answers or solutions tonight,” he said.

Police Commission member Duane Giannini suggested that project planners investigate the potential for the nearby Oakview Road handling some school-related traffic.

Ms Mattegat suggested that an emergency entry/exit road for the high school be linked to Oakview Road.

The 54-unit age-restricted Regency at Newtown condominium complex is now under construction on Oakview Road. The narrow, winding, hilly north-south Oakview Road, which links Berkshire Road to Wasserman Way, lies to the west of the high school. Adding traffic volume to the residential Oakview Road was a controversial topic when the condo project there was under review by the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z). 

Police Chief Michael Kehoe said that if the high school’s student population should increase to projected levels, residents can expect that traffic congestion in the high school area will continue.

Such an expanded student enrollment would pose problems with vehicles entering and exiting the site, Mr Simon said.

Police Captain Joe Rios suggested that the high school’s driveway be widened to better handle added traffic volume.

As the project planners progress with the high school expansion proposal, they should return to the Police Commission to discuss the traffic aspects of the planning, Ms Mattegat said.

“Please continue to keep us informed. Just stay with us. We’ll work together,” she said.