LEWISTON — A median along Main Street isn’t the answer to Main Street-Strawberry Avenue traffic problems, according to neighbors.
Instead, they suggested state and city money be spent elsewhere: fixing congestion problems farther north of Strawberry Avenue.
“This is like a freight train,” said Dr. Roger Bergeron, who runs his optometry practice out of a building at the corner of Brooks and Main streets. “You have the state money to spend and it just gets started rolling. Once it does, it’s pretty hard to stop.”
Councilors hosted a special workshop meeting Tuesday in the Lewiston Public Library’s Callahan Hall to review plans for widening Main Street north of the Russell Street overpass.
The stretch of road sees an average of 24,000 cars per day, according to city officials. The road currently has one southbound lane, one northbound lane and a dedicated lane for northbound cars turning into Strawberry Avenue.
The Maine Department of Transportation plans call for turning the three-lane stretch north of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge into a four-lane road — one lane southbound, two lanes northbound and a dedicated turn lane for Strawberry Avenue. The plan includes a traffic signal at the Strawberry Avenue intersection.
Neighbors seemed to support the Strawberry Avenue traffic light Tuesday night. Their biggest objections centered on a proposed median south of Strawberry Avenue. That would stop people living on the east side of Main Street from turning left out of their streets or driveways.
Bergeron said he and his neighbors were concerned it would end up sending more Main Street traffic down their residential street.
But city officials said the median is the one part of the plan MDOT seems intent on doing.
“We’ve been told that they will not approve a streetlight at Strawberry Avenue without that median,” Public Works Director David Jones said.
Councilors said they were unwilling to support the plan as presented. They directed city staff to discuss neighbors’ concerns with the state and to report back at a meeting in November.
“It seems that everyone is willing to compromise at this point, except the MDOT,” Councilor Mark Cayer said. “Maybe it’s time that we start putting some pressure on them.”
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