Residents Asked to Vote on Traffic Plans

Farmington residents will have another chance to get behind a potential solution to the traffic congestion in Unionville center.

The committee will hold a meeting open to all Farmington residents Feb. 29 to present a spectrum of potential projects, ranging from doing nothing to constructing a new bridge. The committee will present residents with six options that increase in both impact to the area and traffic relief, said traffic committee member John Vibert.

“What should become clear is that each step on the spectrum means more change and each step on the spectrum means more problems are solved. People have to come up with a notion of how much am I willing to see changed in order to get problems solved,” Vibert said.

At the meeting, the traffic committee will present brief explanations of the issues and options and weigh the feedback.

“If results are scattered and everyone wants a different way, we may just pack our bags and go home,” he said. “If there is a meaningful amount of people who coalesce around a particular plan, we’ll present that to the council.”

The options will not be presented in great detail and the committee isn’t interested in receiving new ideas from the public. The committee has collected and vetted more than 300 ideas in the past two years.

On the New Britain Avenue intersection, said to be the linchpin of village traffic congestion, the committee has considered 88 ideas. A list of those ideas will be distributed at the Feb. 29 meeting to illustrate the enormous amount of input the committee has received from the public.

Some consider the Unionville bridge to be the traffic pinch point but Vibert said it’s unlikely that there is enough public support or funding to support replacing it.

“The message I’m getting from people in town is that they like the bridge,” Vibert said, though some question the long-term soundness of the structure.

A Department of Transportation representative is scheduled to speak to the Town Council about the bridge condition on Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

“The bridge is years off — it’s 25-30 years off — so even if that’s the ultimate goal, it makes sense to do something in the short term so we don’t have to sit in traffic jams for 30 years,” Vibert said, adding that the midterm solutions the committee will present will support construction of a new bridge when the time comes.

When the traffic committee presents its findings to the Town Council, this phase of its work may be complete. The council voted Feb. 13 to change the strategic goal surrounding the committee’s work, pending approval of the list, which will be discussed at a future meeting.

For a look at the work of the Unionville Traffic Committee, click here.