A busy Route 1 intersection in Orland where collisions and injuries have become common in recent years might get a 3-signal traffic light.
Maine Department of Transportation is considering installing upgraded traffic signals where Route 1 intersects Upper Falls and School House roads. The department will make a presentation on its proposal available to the public online from Jan. 19 to Feb. 4, according to a formal notice the department sent to the town. The town posted a copy of the notice on its Facebook page on Wednesday.
Currently, the intersection has stop signs for traffic approaching Route 1 from either Upper Falls or School House Road, which face each other directly across the intersection. Vehicles approaching the intersection from either direction on Route 1 encounter blinking yellow lights that are intended to encourage motorists to slow down and be alert while driving through.
The intersection has a reputation for frequent crashes and, according to MDOT data, that rate has been increasing in recent years.
There were eight crashes at the intersection in 2021 and five people were injured, according to MDOT’s online Maine Public Crash Query Tool — and those numbers have continued to rise.
Over the past four years, the number of annual crashes at the intersection increased from 10 in 2022, 15 the next year, to 17 in 2024 and then to 22 last year. The number of injuries from those accidents increased from five in 2022 to 15 in 2023, then to 18 in 2024, and then to 24 last year, according to MDOT data.
Lester Stackpole, who lives on Upper Falls Road and chairs the town’s select board, said he tries to avoid driving straight through that intersection from Upper Falls Road to Schoolhouse Road — which is the most direct way for him to get from his house to the town office.
He said he prefers to turn right onto Route 1 and then, after about a mile, left onto Lower Falls Road to get to select board meetings. On his way home he likes to take Gray Meadow Road east to Route 1 and then turn left to drive less than a mile back up the highway to get to Upper Falls Road.
“It’s a dangerous intersection,” Stackpole said. “It’s hard to see oncoming traffic.”
For years, because the intersection is at the top of a hill on Route 1, there were passing lanes leading into it for both northbound and southbound traffic on Route 1. Northbound traffic coming from Bucksport still has that passing lane, but the passing lane on the southbound side of the road was eliminated a few years ago and replaced with a righthand turning lane onto Upper Falls Road.
Stackpole said he could not recall when that change was made. He said the state at one point also considered the idea of building a rotary at the intersection, which would cause all traffic to slow down and then navigate through in a circular pattern, but it would have been fairly expensive compared to an illuminated light-based system.
Stackpole has some questions about the proposal and is not entirely sure that a 3-color traffic signal is the best option, he said. He expects the select board will request that MDOT hold an in-person hearing in Orland on the proposal, so he and other residents could discuss the proposal directly with MDOT staff.
An MDOT spokesperson said Thursday afternoon that he did not have immediate information about why the department has now decided to formally propose installing a 3-signal traffic light at the intersection. That information likely would be available on Friday, Jan. 16, the spokesperson said.