MACHIAS, Maine — The Washington County Council of Governments and the Maine Department of Transportation are poised to help Machias come up with solutions to traffic safety issues in town along Route 1.
“WCCOG was approached by Maine DOT to assist Machias in a comprehensive analysis of pedestrian and truck safety and mobility issues,” reads a Maine DOT Regional Planning Work Plan Task Proposal filled out by Judy East, executive director of the Council of Governments. The organization provides a range of planning and advisory services to member communities around the county.
East warned, however, that no contract to perform the safety study has been signed as of March 1.
“I’ve been told, ‘Yes, it will happen,’ but until I have a contract, I don’t believe ‘yes’ from anybody,” she said.
Scott Rollins, assistant director for the DOT’s bureau of planning, said he hopes the agency will have the contract out to the Council of Governments in a couple of weeks.
“I see this as one thing we should be able to push through and get approval,” he said Tuesday.
Rollins said the DOT will provide funding, though he did not know how much the project would cost. It is one of the details to be determined before a contract is signed.
Assuming the contract goes through, the project will address the safety of the downtown area along Route 1, said Rollins.
East said the analysis will be especially concerned with the intersection of Route 1 and Court Street near the town hall, the intersection of Route 1 and High Street near the Whole Life Cafe, and a sharp turn on Route 92, which gets a lot of truck traffic from nearby blueberry processing plants.
When the project is completed, officials hope to have proposed solutions to make the area safer.
“The result of this proposal will be a viable action plan to help the community address these identified safety and mobility issues that affect a large number of residents, commercial traffic and commuters,” reads the work plan task proposal.
Rollins said the project will come up with solutions but will not necessarily address them. Those solutions will be included in a new, separate proposal or will be rolled into a larger DOT project being proposed for the area.
“Some of them could be [implemented] very quickly and others could be five to 10 years down the road,” he said.
Rollins said it is not unusual for the department to work together with towns like this. In fact, the DOT has an annual $7,500 contract with the Council of Governments to assist with educational outreach. The budget for this project will be over and above that figure.