Various road work on Queen Street, which started in July, is nearing completion with the construction of five “speed tables” intended to hold down motorists’ travel speeds on the busy north-south road with a 25-mph speed limit that links Church Hill Road to Mile Hill Road.

On Wednesday morning, a town road crew painted the northernmost speed table, which lies just south of Queen Street’s intersection with Grand Place. The southernmost speed table lies just south of Queen Street’s intersection with Borough Lane.

The full length of the mile-long Queen Street was repaved earlier this month.

Fred Hurley, town public works director, said the new set of speed tables is intended to have consistent geometry. The previous set of five speed tables was built in two phases and thus had differing contours.

To alert motorists of their presence, the speed tables are painted bright yellow. Various white paint markings surround them. Numerous warning signs are posted.

The town recently installed a new set of speed tables on Key Rock Road, a street that links Sugar Street to the intersection of Hattertown Road and Poverty Hollow Road. That installation increased the number of speed tables there from two to four.

The Police Commission, in its role as the local traffic authority, several years ago decided that Queen Street and Key Rock Road should have speed tables, based on residents’ complaints about chronic speeding problems on their roads. The locations of speed tables were based on studies performed by traffic engineers.

Mr Hurley acknowledged that speed tables are not necessarily popular among motorists, but added that the devices are installed to address chronic speeding problems in given areas.