BANGOR, Maine — Almost a month after a Bangor man was struck by a car and killed in a hit-and-run incident at the intersection of Main and Patten streets, city workers have installed a pedestrian crosswalk there.
The crosswalk — featuring a countdown pedestrian signal on both sides of Main Street, a painted crosswalk on the street, streetlights and a handicapped-accessible ramp on both sides — isn’t functional yet, but should be in operation by the weekend.
“We started discussing this a couple weeks ago, and obviously we’re trying to increase people’s safety after that hit-and-run incident,” said Dana Wardwell, Bangor’s public works director. “It’s to provide one more safe access point to cross that main thoroughfare.”
There were already crosswalk signals on Patten, but now there are signals on both sides of Main at the intersection.
“We had to lower the curbing on the river side to make a handicapped-accessible ramp,” Wardwell said. “We sloped the curbing down and now we need to pour a little piece of concrete in there where we place a truncated dome and then paint a crosswalk over it.”
Truncated domes — which resemble corrugated plating with raised knobby circles — signal blind and visually impaired people that they are about to leave or enter the crosswalk.
Wardwell said the work will cost a total of about $15,000.
Streetlights were also added to increase nighttime visibility.
The project started with the wiring for new lights on June 12 and will conclude with the concrete work, which Wardwell hopes to have done Wednesday, weather permitting.
Joshua R. Constantine, 37, was killed after being hit by a driver late Saturday night, June 2, near the entrance to Shaw’s Supermarket on Main Street. He lived on Patten Street.
Before now, the only crosswalks on Main Street in the area were at the junctions with Buck Street, five blocks to the south, and Railroad Street, one block to the north.
The driver was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, a Class C felony, and falsifying evidence.
Excellent to see this safety measure being taken…..I have never seen such a project take place in such a short amount of time…..this is how one should respond to a need like this…..well done folks…..
Safety measures are put in place to prevent accidents. Not to respond to them. This is pathetic.
Many safety measures and changes to traffic patterns have been put in place in response to accidents happening…..I am not privy to whether this specific site has been talked about in the past as needing such a measure done, but it will make this part of the street/area more safe…..should this particular job have been done earlier?? Maybe so…..and would it have prevented the recent tragedy??…..no one can answer that….
Wow! That didn’t take long at all! Kudos to the City of Bangor for stepping up and making the street a little safer. I’m very sorry it took a death for it to happen though.
I really would not give them kudos, this was supposed to happen three years ago, they just waited until a tragic happened.
Reactive. That’s all. A friend is dead.
I’m sorry about the loss of your friend. It may be reactive, but at least it will hopefully prevent another death. Yes, PROactive is best, but I’d rather have reactive, then no action at all.
Please repaint the intersection of Broadway and Burleigh/Griffin Rd, and Griffen Rd. and Kenduskeag Ave. Someone is not doing their job!
See this is what you people get with budgets cuts so you will half to live with it they will get to it when they can
with the school budget at half the city budget what do you expect. 42 millon dollars school budget.. take 10 millon from them and give it to public works.. Homeowners pay enough already
As soon as someone gets hit, it will be put at the top of the list….
Typical bangor engineering intersecition near my house on Ohio 6 people killed over the years all we asked for by petition was lights nope won’t work then after a couple more near fatals they put lights up guess what no fatals in over ten years listen to us we know sometimes
The Bangor Public works always does great work. pro’s to say the least.. Thanks for caring.
They should do great work. There is always plenty of manpower hanging around leaning on their shovels. Used to work there…….
Great job, and are the streetlights on too, for when Shaw’s is closed? The darkness was also an issue there. Thanks so much for taking care of this quickly.
seriously? great job? our friend is dead. was isn’t the city proactive, instead of reactive?
Great job on plan, design and implementation. F- on timeliness of job. That’s why when Josh was hit, I posted that I’d be volunteering to testify in court as to the conditions that night. We almost hit pedestrians in that same area approx. 40 min. later, after Josh was hit. I am sorry for the loss of Josh Constantine, knew him as a younger person in the schools, and knew his mother back then fairly well as an acquaintance. What happened was sad.
I drove the route going 25 mph. This should never have happened.
Was that the first time you drove main st. at 25mph.. I sure don’t and never see anyone driving that speed.
What are you mad at?
Thank you, I walk in the area all of the time, and Main St is hard to cross.
1 done 99 to go! Don’t try walking down Patten St, no sidewalk there, the City deeded it to Shaw’s :(
I’m so glad they are doing this- My son and I saw a man almost get hit there during the Beach Boys concert. He sprinted across the street and the sports car in front of us couldn’t see him coming past the SUV next to him. It was close!
Thats why people shouldn’t stop to let people cross when there is lanes of traffic.. I saw a near miss in downtown the other day when a lady thought she had the right of way, with the cross walk 30 feet down the road. She walked out in front of a car because someone stopped in the first lane to let her go, the second lane driver was blinded by the first.
Yay! Close the barn door after the horse got out!
Seriously. Kinda late, don’t ya think?
Never late for this. It may save many in the future. unless you don’t care about peoples lives.
shut it. someone died here and you people are congratulating the city for doing what should have already been done.
Unfortunate it takes something like this for these things to happen, on the other hand a complete waste of time, nobody will use it right, ok maybe 1 out of 63 people will push the button to walk, otherwise the people will barge right out in front of everyone thinking they have the right of way.
it`s called being dead right
I’m so glad! Before you either had to cross by Dunkin Donuts or all the way down by the Bangor Daily News.
Now if they would just repaint the lines on the main streets so people actually stay in their lane, or so you don’t have people from away confused and almost causing accidents because they have no idea where to be or go.
Not enough money for paint. Spent it all on dirt replanting grass in front of the “for profit private entity waterfront stage)”. Maybe the increase in the new park reveune we rented to the downtown beer garden will be enough to paint lines. Oh that’s right, Bangor gives out a park, A PARK, and 5k square feet of outdoor park space to be used for a for private, for profit entity for no charge. Alcohol consumption no less. Good plan for noise reduction.
Time to go occupy a park with a stage and a beer truck. Heck, with no land, tax or building expenses even a monkey can make a profit.
You stay classy Bangor.
Actually a part of the cost of each ticket sold to a Waterfront Concert, $0.25 I believe, is used in a fund for turf repair at the venue. That part of your little rant is incorrect. The second part does indeed have some validity.
Well thank you kindly for the nice comment, should i flag it or should i not. Nah . Honestly you guys are commending the city for doing there job, come on a guy died here and they finally do what they were supposed to do three years ago.
Son of a Doctor too. That will always get faster results.
And the person who killed him was released on $60 bail. How does that jibe with your observation? It appears that powerful people in this community are making sure that Ms. Giles will not have to suffer too much for her “accident”.
well good thing crosswalks have a magical force field and are a subsitute for pedestrian and motorist attention to traffic conditions.
The crosswalk on Central St. is dangerous as the traffic is congested and all one way. Almost hit someone last week there as a driver stopped and it blocked the view. Pedestrians need to be alert and aware THE WHOLE WAY and not zone out once they start because one driver “gave permission” to cross. A crosswalk is not a cocoon of safety for the oblivious.
“We started discussing this a couple weeks ago, and obviously we’re trying to increase people’s safety after that hit-and-run incident,” said Dana Wardwell, Bangor’s public works director. “It’s to provide one more safe access point to cross that main thoroughfare.”
Mr. Wardwell, my next question for you, is why are the timers still not even close to long enough to actually cross the street? I have seen young, old, and handicapped, try and cross those crosswalks and EVERY SINGLE TIME, the time runs out and the DONT walk sign comes up, signalling to a ton of the younger and uncaring drivers out there to rev their engines and start moving, usually scaring the heck out of the person trying to cross the street. I would love to perform a test. I would love to get every member of the City Council to stand on one side of the road. They should push that “Walk” button, and then try to cross the street. Meanwhile we can have some of those lovely race rockets on either direction waiting for the light to turn green. Please folks, let us all know how “SAFE” you really feel.
You folks dropped the ball here, i dont know how many times i have been told that the person driving the car was under the influence, or underage driving while intoxicated. She not only didnt pay attention and took a promising life from a young man, but she wont see more than probation time for doing it…Dang Shame, and honestly, makes me a little sick.
I am still lost as to the outpouring of support for Ms. Giles and I appreciate your reference to the lack of justice regarding the charges brought, or more to the point, the charges not brought against Ms. Giles. How was this not vehicular manslaughter? And was this project done to bolster her defense and justify what looks to be an outcome of a suspended sentence?
Years ago they had stop signs at 14th and ohio. many, many deaths. Now they have lights, no deaths.. worked out well.. They change traffic patterns all the time to prevent accidents.. be happy about it… Josh didn’t die because there wasn’t a cross walk on Main street, because there was 2 of them. Now there are 3 of them. It is even more convienant now.