The Westbrook City Council gave unanimous preliminary approval Monday to the first phase of Brook Street improvements.
Councilors approved a plan to repave the road from Virginia Street to the Falmouth town line. If the plan receives final approval, the repaving would likely start in July or August and be wrapped up in four to six weeks, according to City Engineer Eric Dudley.
The three-phase project will cost about $400,000, but will mainly use federal money along with $103,000 in local funding.
“It’s a much-needed repair, and it leverages various federal funds,” Mayor Mike Foley said at the meeting.
The council also gave unanimous preliminary approval to spend $64,520 for a study of the Brook Street-Bridgton Road/Route 302 intersection. Intersection improvements are planned for the second phase of the project with that work beginning next year, according to City Administrator Jerre Bryant.
The intersection, which has a four-way traffic signal, has been the site of 16 vehicle accidents in the past three years, among a total of 35 in the immediate vicinity, according to the Maine Department of Transportation. About 14,000 vehicles travel that corridor daily, DOT says.
Dudley has also previously told the American Journal that the city receives more calls about the intersection than any other in the city.
“Most are about the inability, if coming eastbound from Windham, to turn left on Brook Street during the evening commute,” Dudley said. “You cannot do it. You can’t safely make that maneuver.”
The final and largest phase of the Brook Street project is “paving sidewalk work, drainage work on the balance of Brook Street, which is funded primarily by fees paid in by developments,” Bryant said.
Developers of a number of proposed residential projects in the area will likely contribute more than $1 million for road improvements as part of their development agreements. The projects include a 58-duplex Brooks Edge Farm subdivision proposed for the old Wormell Farm property on Brook Street and a 96-home Cottages at Berkshire development across the street from the Wormell Farm. Brook Street Apartments with 18 units was approved in October. Developers must pay $5,200 per unit in impact fees, which the city will use for the Brook Street improvements.
Dudley previously said he expects all three parts of the project to be wrapped up some time in 2023.
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