
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Massachusetts Section of Transportation desires to know irrespective of whether citizens like the thought of a roundabout to deal with protection problems at the junction of Routes 7 and 43 in South Williamstown.




The so-known as Five Corners intersection attributes constrained visibility for motorists entering the intersection from Route 43 possibly from the east (Green River Street) or the west (Hancock Road).




At present, site visitors on the east/west Route 43 is managed by stop indications and a flashing purple light. Motorists on the north/south U.S. Route 7 are controlled by a flashing yellow light and a widely disregarded drop of speed limit at the strategy to the intersection.




“I generate that intersection each and every day myself,” mentioned MassDOT District Project Improvement Engineer Mark Moore, who is centered in the Lenox office environment. “I am nicely aware of that [speed] situation. I cautioned our planners about that issue. But I really don’t feel we have sufficient info at this time to absolutely assess that.




“There is, in idea, a velocity reduction as a result of the intersection but that, as everyone appreciates, unless of course the Williamstown Police Division comes about to be sitting down there, the management is practically non-existent.”




Roundabouts — also acknowledged as rotaries or website traffic circles — are acknowledged to reduce crash severity and lower the probability of a crash. A single was created in Adams at the hard intersection of Route 8 and Friend Street various a long time ago.







That internet site is getting made use of by the point out agency as a “digital meeting,” the place residents can register, get data about the proposal and, by way of Feb. 3, comment on the notion.




Mass DOT’s intention is to get the temperature of the community about the concept of a roundabout ahead of generating the economic investment decision in major engineering, Moore mentioned.




“It all is dependent on how the responses arrive out on the initially presentation,” he claimed. “If we have a resounding opposition, I suspect the undertaking will just conclusion at that level and we are going to go again to the drawing board for other possible mitigation and occur back again to the general public with a various prepare.




“If it is split, I consider we’ll go into some additional development of the ideas and go back to the community in the upcoming with growth designs. We constantly have a design and style general public hearing, also. Any challenge would have a design and style general public listening to.”




Other mitigations that could be employed incorporate elevated signage and elimination of the “slip lanes” applied by turning traffic at the intersection.




One particular detail likely off the table: incorporating the town’s next cease gentle.




“The intersection won’t warrant a end light,” Moore explained. “The targeted traffic quantity is not significant more than enough. Whilst there have been pretty critical mishaps there, they will not transpire with sufficient frequency to warrant a targeted visitors mild for a security evaluate.




“What we have to have to do is correct the sight line issue. [A roundabout] would be one way of mitigating the sight distance coming off Route 43. … I do not know if there are other remedies. The sight length is tough to mitigate provided the sum of earth in agricultural land that is blocking the sight strains.”




Routes 7 and 43 are below the jurisdiction of MassDOT. The city has no part in choosing how the problems eventually are fixed, City Planner Andrew Groff stated on Monday.




Transportation officers hope that the opinions recorded by the virtual meeting will give it a feeling of regardless of whether the strategy of a roundabout has guidance in the group.




“This is all new,” Moore claimed of the virtual conference. “I feel COVID protocols have considerably transformed our business enterprise design. We do not have a fantastic offer of info on the digital meeting structure to know how it truly is heading to function.




“Out east, there have been profitable tasks that have operate on this design. I consider this is possibly the 1st time we have performed it in our district.”




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