DOT Considers Traffic Signal For Mile Hill-Queen Intersection

By Andrew Gorosko

The state Department of Transportation (DOT) is completing a traffic study to gauge whether a traffic signal is warranted as a safety feature at the hazardous intersection of Mile Hill Road and Queen Street.

The four-way offset intersection is located where the southern end of Queen Street and the northern end of Tinkerfield Road meet the east-west Mile Hill Road. The Queen Street and Tinkerfield Road legs of the intersection do not meet Mile Hill Road directly across from each other, but are offset.

The DOT traffic study follows a request from State Rep Julia Wasserman that the DOT investigate how traffic safety at the intersection can be improved.

The state road that links South Main Street (Route 25) via Fairfield Hills to Berkshire Road (Route 34) is designated as Route 840, but that route number is not posted.

Route 840 is called Mile Hill Road between South Main Street and Mile Hill Road South. Route 840 is called Wasserman Way between Mile Hill Road South and Berkshire Road. 

The entire length of Route 840 formerly was known as Mile Hill Road, but several years ago, to honor Rep Wasserman’s work toward the redevelopment of Fairfield Hills, the state renamed a reconstructed section of Route 840 as “Wasserman Way.”

In a letter to the DOT, Mrs Wasserman wrote that the reconstruction of Route 840 in the late 1990s “has resulted in a marked increase in both [eastbound] and westbound traffic on Wasserman Way.”

The state improved Route 840 to create an “east-west bypass” road to allow easy travel between Interstate 84 and Route 25. The state constructed the bypass road (Wasserman Way) to lessen the traffic pressure on the section of Church Hill Road between I-84 and Route 25.

Increased traffic flow on Wasserman Way “was an expected development, and has somewhat relieved the east-west traffic on Route 6 through the town, but the additional traffic on Wasserman Way and Mile Hill Road has reached such volume that vehicles are placed at great risk attempting to enter Mile Hill Road from Queen Street,” Mrs Wasserman wrote to the DOT.

“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,” she added.

“The recent opening of [Reed Intermediate School at Fairfield Hills] has exacerbated the problems. School officials, citizens, and myself, of course, urge you to review the site conditions and find a way to resolve the ongoing problem,” Mrs Wasserman wrote in her letter to Acting DOT Commissioner James F. Byrnes, Jr.

The Queen Street-Mile Hill Road intersection carries heavy school bus traffic, especially on weekday mornings before Reed Intermediate School opens. After dropping off students in Grades 7 and 8 at Newtown Middle School, about 30 school buses then proceed to drop off more students in Grades 5 and 6 at Reed Intermediate School.

DOT Response

DOT Transportation Engineer Merrill Sitcovsky said May 28 the DOT would soon respond to Mrs Wasserman’s urgings for improved traffic safety at the Mile Hill-Queen-Tinkerfield intersection.

The DOT response may involve installing a traffic signal at that intersection, he said.

If the DOT determines that a signal should be installed, it would take up to two years to do so, he said.

Such traffic signals cost approximately $70,000. Of that amount, the federal government would cover an 80 percent share, with the state and town each covering ten percent shares.

If a traffic signal were approved for the intersection, it would be used to control traffic on all four legs of the intersection, including Tinkerfield Road, Mr Sitcovsky said. The lightly used Tinkerfield Road leads to the Taunton Press and to the local VFW/American Legion post.

Mr Sitcovsky said the DOT also is studying what steps may be taken at the signal-controlled intersection of South Main Street and Mile Hill Road to improve traffic safety there. Many school buses make a left turn from southbound South Main Street onto eastbound Mile Hill Road in transporting students to Reed Intermediate School.

Changes at that intersection may involve increasing the length of time allotted for southbound South Main Street traffic to make “protected turns” left onto Mile Hill Road, Mr Sitcovsky said. Such protected turns are controlled by “green arrow” signals.

Intersection Improvement

The DOT also is in the preliminary planning stages for modernizing traffic signal equipment at the heavily used four-way intersection of Main Street/South Main Street (Route 25), Glover Avenue, and Sugar Street (Route 302).

The DOT is seeking suggestions for improving that intersection from town officials. In the future, the DOT would publicly describe its plans for improving that intersection.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe said improving that intersection might involve installing “protected turn” signals there, as well as widening roadways leading to the traffic signal.