Permanent Structures—

Queen St.

To Get

Speed Tables

By Andrew Gorosko

Police Commission members have approved the plans for the installation of five permanent broad asphalt speed bumps, known as “speed tables,” on the southern section Queen Street, in a move to get motorists to obey the 25-mph speed limit on the heavily traveled residential road.

Police Commission members, who also serve as the traffic authority for the town and the borough, unanimously approved the speed table installation project at a November 6 session.

Fred Hurley, town public works director, said November 14 the town will seek to get all five speed tables installed by early December, before area asphalt plants close operations for the winter. Speed tables that are not installed before the current construction season ends would be installed next spring, he said.

The Police Commission has long considered the installation of speed tables on Queen Street, a mile-long north-south road that links Church Hill Road to Mile Hill Road. Queen Street area residents have long complained to the Police Commission about speeding motorists on Queen Street in seeking traffic measures such as speed tables to limit travel speeds there.

Since last April, two hard-rubber temporary speed tables had been in place on Queen Street, near its intersections with Lovell’s Lane and with Borough Lane. The devices were installed as an experiment to learn the practicality of such speed control devices. Those temporary structures have been removed.

At the November 6 session, Police Commission members approved five locations for the installation of speed tables. The devices will be installed on Queen Street: between Grand Place and Elizabeth Street; between Elizabeth Street and Lovell’s Lane; immediately south of Lovell’s Lane; midblock between Lovell’s Lane and Borough Lane; and south of Borough Lane.

Each speed table would be about three to four inches tall. The structures would be about 22 feet wide, including a ten-foot-wide flat spot atop the speed table, with six-foot slopes on either side of the flat spot. The devices would span the width of the street. The presence of the speed tables will be indicated by traffic signs and pavement markings.

None of the five permanent devices will be located at the places where the two temporary speed tables were installed.

To determine the design and the best locations for the planned speed tables, the town hired Frederick P. Clark Associates, Inc, of Fairfield, which is a traffic planning firm, and Spath-Bjorklund Associates, Inc, of Monroe, which is a civil engineering firm, to develop plans for the work.

In a letter to police on the speed table project, traffic engineer Michael Galante of Clark Associates, writes, “These [planned] speed tables [will be] located at approximately the same intervals along Queen Street to maintain an overall operating speed of approximately 25 miles per hour...It is recommended that after the installation of the tables, the town closely monitor these locations, and in late winter or early spring conduct new speed and volume studies to determine and compare to previous studies… [whether] there is any change in the volume of traffic and the actual operating speed” on Queen Street.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe said this week that the planned speed tables will be separated by about 400 to 500 feet of linear roadway.

Mr Hurley said he is awaiting word from Tilcon, an asphalt construction firm, on when its workers will be able to install the Queen Street speed tables. It is expected that area asphalt plants will close for the winter by December 7, Mr Hurley noted.

Mr Hurley said he expects that each of the speed tables could be installed during a half-day work period.

The asphalt speed tables will be broader than the two temporary hard-rubber speed tables that had been in place on Queen Street, he said.

Mr Hurley noted that the town plans to resurface Queen Street within a few years’ time.

In the meantime, “People will get an opportunity [to learn] what these things are like on a year-round basis,” he said.

Queen Street carries much more traffic than Key Rock Road, a street where the town installed two permanent speed bumps in the fall of 2011, following an experiment there with temporary speed bumps in the fall of 2010.

In response to the continuing complaints about traffic speeds on Queen Street, police conducted a traffic enforcement crackdown there.

During a 20-day period in February, police stopped 369 drivers on Queen Street for various violations. Those violations primarily involved speeding. Among those 369 motor vehicle stops, police issued three misdemeanor summonses, 166 infraction tickets, 155 written warnings, and 45 verbal warnings.