Traffic Improvements Could Be on the Horizon

New Britain is considering straightening out a portion of the road leading onto the Pine Valley Covered Bridge to improve visibility and traffic flow.

The borough plans to ask neighboring Doylestown and New Britain townships whether they would be interested in the road realignment on the Ferry Road side of the bridge, where Keeley Avenue and Old Iron Hill Road meet – and in sharing the estimated $30,000 cost.

“It’s just one of our options,” New Britain Borough Engineer Mark Hintenlang said after Tuesday’s borough council meeting.  He said the road repositioning could be done in conjunction with measures the borough is considering to slow down traffic.

Those measures include adding speed humps or speed tables along Keeley Avenue between Butler Avenue and Covered Bridge Park. Hintenlang said fire companies prefer speed tables because their trucks can ride over them without slowing down.

Hintenlang said straightening the road would cost far less than another option – putting in traffic lights on either side of the bridge. Signalization would cost approximately $100,000, he said.

Realigning the road would keep traffic moving, and might even speed it up, but the speed tables would slow it down on the other side of the bridge, Hintenlang said.

The vast majority of residents living in 34 households along Keeley Avenue between Butler Avenue and the park favor the installation of speed humps or tables. Seventy-five percent of those responding to a “ballot” from traffic engineer Jeff L’Amoreaux said they want the devices installed. At the borough council meeting last month,

Still to be decided, however, is whether to purchase temporary speed tables to test out possible locations for them, or to buy and install permanent ones.

Hintenlang said the temporary devices are cheaper and would provide the borough with flexibility regarding placement, but they must be removed in winter because of snow plowing. Temporary humps or tables also would allow residents to see whether they object to the noise made by cars going over them.

Hintenlang said temporary devices could be sold or used later in another location in the borough.

Borough Council President David Donahue said the temporary humps or tables are $800 to $900 each, and the permanent ones cost about $2,000 each. He said the borough is looking at installing three.

Hintenlang said they would be placed in the middle of straight-aways and near street lamps, so they could be seen in the dark. The borough also would install signs warning drivers.

Council member Peter La Montagne said he prefers the idea of installing an island in the middle of the road as a way to slow traffic. “It looks nice, and it doesn’t make noise,” he said.