AUBURN — Residents will get an update from the city on the status of Route 4 safety improvements next week.
The city is hosting a public meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, in Auburn Hall.
The city hosted a similar public meeting in October for residents to discuss their concerns about the road.
“When we did that meeting, we told the public we’d schedule a follow-up, and that we’d be getting back to them,” City Engineer Dan Goyette said. “It’s basically an informational meeting to explain where the city stands.”
The Route 4 corridor, especially the stretch between Auburn’s downtown and Turner, was the site of numerous accidents last summer.
In October, residents agreed on three potential solutions — widening the road to add a dedicated left-turn lane down the middle, reducing the speed limit and having police enforce existing speed limits.
Goyette said at least one of those solutions, widening stretches of the road at problem intersections, cannot be done without spending a lot of money.
“We did some test borings done out there to see if those shoulders could support traffic or a turn lane,” Goyette said. “They can’t. There is no gravel there.”
The city should also release results of their online near-miss tracking. The city created a Web page to collect reports from residents involved in accidents or near-misses on Route 4 after the October meeting.
Ultimate solutions may be up to the state, however. A group of city officials and residents urged legislators to pay for a safety review earlier this month. Officials from the Maine Department of Transportation argued against the study, saying Route 4 is not the only Maine stretch with these kinds of complaints. Solutions could be more expensive than the state budget can handle at the present time.
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