Road used as shortcut now closed

TORRINGTON — Concrete barriers and a new “dead end” sign now greet drivers who turn down St. John’s Place.

The Torrington Police Department posted a traffic advisory on its Facebook page Wednesday, alerting motorists of the closure.

“Entrance and exit to St. John Place can only be made from East Main Street,” the alert stated.

The narrow road has been used for the last few years by residents as a shortcut to City Hall Avenue, according to city officials. The route took them through the privately-owned parking lot of the Warner Theater.

“The amount of traffic ... has increased significantly,” wrote Mayor Elinor Carbone in an email on Friday. She noted that preschool programs are being held in the former St. Peter’s School, which borders St. John’s Place.

Carbone wrote that there had been a number of near misses between cars using the short cut and patrons of the Warner Theater and children at the school.

There were barriers at the end of the road until St. Peter’s School closed, Carbone noted. The barriers were then removed, and drivers began using it as a pass through, she wrote.

To inform motorists of the return of the barriers and that the road was again categorized as a dead end, Traffic Officer Steven Pisarski said he recently installed a new sign. It is posted at the entrance to the road from East Main Street.

“The street was a dead end and it has to be properly marked,” Pisarski said.

“We have all been witness to to traffic traveling through the parking lot at excessive speed,” Carbone wrote. (Drivers are) not cognizant of the fact that they were in a private parking lot.”

Leslie Hutchison / Hearst Connecicut Media Drivers using St. John’s Place as a cut through to City Hall Avenue.