The DOT will install a warning sign to alert southbound drivers of merging traffic at the intersection of Pleasant and Stanwood streets in Brunswick. Kathleen O’Brien / The Times Record
BRUNSWICK — Maine Department of Transportation will install a flashing sign at the intersection of Stanwood, Mill and Pleasant streets to warn drivers when traffic is entering from Stanwood.
According to Town Manager John Eldridge, the sign will have beacons that will be activated when the light turns green for Stanwood traffic, warning southbound drivers that traffic is entering from Stanwood.
The flashing sign was an idea supported by many locals who attended a public meeting to discuss problems at the intersection in August — but was not one of the DOT’s proposed fixes. It was suggested by resident Bruce Freeman, who said the traffic coming off Mill Street needs to be slowed down so that turning off Stanwood is less dangerous.
“It would help us getting home,” he said.
DOT spokesman Paul Merrill said he doesn’t know when the sign will be installed because the department is waiting to receive a cost estimate. The sign will need to be custom-made.
In addition to the flashing sign, Eldridge said the town installed, “a low-rise mountable curb island where the first two delineators are on Pleasant Street.”
“We hope to keep the other delineators in place but are not optimistic they will survive the first plowing,” Eldridge said.
DOT official Al Godfrey said earlier nearly 30,000 vehicles drive down Pleasant Street every day, and about 5,000 drive down Stanwood. The intersection is not considered a high crash zone, he said, but accidents are on the rise — primarily sideswipes and fender benders resulting from drivers trying to change lanes too quickly. To complicate matters, Mill and Stanwood streets are poorly aligned with one another, making crossing difficult.
This is not the first time improvements have been attempted.
In 2018, the department installed a temporary stoplight at Mill and Pleasant Street to stop Mill Street traffic at the intersection that previously had yielded to traffic turning onto Pleasant Street from Stanwood Street. The light was removed in June to better move U.S. Route 1 southbound traffic, as it was creating “horrendous backups,” Godfrey said.
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