The Highway Safety Committee will wait on a resident’s request for a “Do Not Block Intersection” sign at Brady Avenue and Rockingham Road until installation of town water and sewer, and the residual construction, is completed.
At its Oct 16 meeting the committee heard a request from resident Philip Clark, who wrote a letter stating that during the afternoon “rush hour,” eastbound traffic on Rockingham Road gets backed up and blocks access to Brady Avenue. Clark wrote, “If a westbound vehicle wants to turn left onto Brady Avenue, they can’t. This in turn creates a backup into the intersection as cars cannot continue west on Route 28.”
In addition, Clark wrote, traffic exiting Brady Avenue to turn left and go west on Route 28 cannot do so if the intersection is blocked.
Clark wrote, “Though a sign informing drivers that it is against the law to block intersections may not be 100 percent effective, it will surely help.”
But Alan Cote, superintendent of operations for Public Works, questioned whether this was a permanent problem. “It never was a problem before the construction on Rockingham Road,” he said, and speculated that the backup was due to the traffic from construction.
“I can’t recall us historically having people backing up to Brady Avenue,” he said.
Member Donald Burgess, who frequently drives the route, said, “What I see happening is that the last two cars are on the right side rather than on the left.” He wondered if a sign were justified.
“We could put a sign on the swale,” Cote said, adding, “But a ‘Do not block the intersection’ sign is never effective, in my experience.”
Fire Chief George Klau-ber observed that Clark’s request was very specific, naming rush hour as the problem.
The committee voted unanimously to table the matter for further study until after the construction is done. Cote said most of the work will be finished by November 2014, and will be completely finished in 2015.
