The Unionville Traffic Committee is scheduled to give its final report and recommendation to the Town Council tonight before it officially disbands.
The committee, formed two years ago to come up with solutions to the traffic problems affecting Unionville center, has spent hundreds of hours gathering data from the public, reviewing studies and conferring with the Department of Transportation.
And the committee’s ultimate recommendation is a plan endorsed by a previous Town Council in 2004, according to John Vibert, who sits both on the Town Council and the traffic committee.
The plan would widen South Main Street, with limited widening south of New Britain Avenue, Vibert said. The plan would round the corners at the intersection to improve turning radius.
“That was the plan that emerged out of the Route 4 corridor plans in the 1990s and the Town Council officially adopted it in 2004,” Vibert said. “It’s been on the state list for funding and was funded at one point but they were rebuilding River Road and ran out of money, so they diverted money from New Britain Avenue and the project went back on the list.”
The project creates turning lanes and allows better flow through the intersection to relieve congestion.
“I think it will do a lot,” Vibert said of the plan. “The key problem is traffic turning on to New Britain Avenue that blocks through-traffic. It improves that situation. It doesn’t solve it.”
Some of the more drastic plans, like the relocation of New Britain Avenue, which was rejected by the Save the Ville group, would go farther toward fixing the problem.
The plan won’t make it easier for traffic coming out of Railroad Avenue, Vibert said, but it will reroute the Rails to Trails bike trail down Railroad Avenue so pedestrians can cross at the light safely.
If the Town Council approves, it will trigger a state process and the DOT will come in and run a public hearing, in which people will be able to give feedback and suggest changes, Vibert said. The state would then draft final plans and ask the Town Council to endorse them before going ahead.
Residents can hear more information about the proposal at the Town Council meeting tonight at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.
