BANGOR, Maine — In a long-awaited decision, Bangor will allow drivers to turn left off the interstate onto Stillwater Avenue.
City Engineer John Theriault told the city’s Infrastructure Committee during a meeting Tuesday that he hopes to make the change by this holiday season.
“I’m not guaranteeing that, but hopefully,” Theriault told city councilors.
As the intersection is set up now, the Interstate 95 Exit 185 offramp has three lanes — two turning right toward the mall, one going straight across Stillwater entering the development that includes Kohl’s and Old Navy. Left turns are prohibited and have been since that interstate connection was completed in 2001.
That ban hasn’t stopped everyone. Some drivers still take the left turn. Others wanting to head toward town often drive into the development across the street, make a U-turn, and turn right onto Stillwater.
The discussion about lifting the ban surfaced as the number of businesses and amount of traffic along Stillwater Avenue grew during the past decade. That push peaked when Buffalo Wild Wings and Hobby Lobby opened two years ago.
The city began talks with the Department of Transportation, which entered a “cooperative agreement” with the city in late 2014 to study traffic patterns at the intersection and decide whether a left turn would be feasible.
The prohibition sprouted from concerns expressed by east-side residents in the tree street neighborhoods along Stillwater. They were worried about the spike in traffic they would see from drivers cutting through those streets to get downtown. In order to move forward with the project, the city agreed to ban left turns.
Theriault received the results of that study on Tuesday, he said.
It includes several recommendations for improving the intersection. The most significant is allowing the left-hand turn, which the Department of Transportation said would make “no significant difference in the capacity or level of service of the intersection.”
It also proposes installing an advanced traffic signal in the southbound lanes of Stillwater to warn oncoming traffic that vehicles are stopping. The Department of Transportation says that could stem the high rate of fender benders at the intersection.
The study also urges the city to improve sidewalk connections in the area. The city also likely will close the furthest right lane in the northbound lanes immediately after the intersection. That will become a shoulder, rather than a lane used by mall traffic.
Theriault said the signal cycle likely wouldn’t need to change. When the lights are green for the three lanes leaving the exit ramp no other traffic moves through the intersection, so cars will be clear to take a left.
“I think there will be a sigh of relief around the community about this,” City Councilor Ben Sprague said Tuesday.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.