West Hartford councilors to discuss N. Main St. ‘road diet,’ trash options
Town manager has recommended reducing number of lanes on 1.7-mile stretch
WEST HARTFORD — Reducing the number of lanes on West Hartford’s North Main Street and using smaller trash bins to promote recycling are among the items up for discussion on Wednesday by a town council subcommittee.
Town Manager Matthew Hart has recommended a “road diet” trial — reducing the number of lanes along a 1.7-mile stretch of North Main Street between Farmington and Albany avenues — in the fall of 2020, or when reconstruction of a bridge near Linbrook Road is completed.
Hart’s recommendation, included in agenda documents for Wednesday morning’s meeting, reaffirms what town Civil Engineer Duane Martin told The Courant in December, when the issue was brought before the council’s community planning and facility services subcommittee. The subcommittee meets monthly to discuss issues and initiatives for public works, zoning, economic and community development, parking, transportation and grounds maintenance.
Debate over slimming the North Main Street corridor dates back to 2015, when proponents argued that something had to be done to address high speeds on the four-lane road, and even sought state funding to research alternatives.
Last month, town councilors on the subcommittee heard impassioned pleas to include a road diet at the same time as the bridge reconstruction project, scheduled the summer of 2020.
Martin said that wouldn’t be an ideal time because the $2 million bridge reconstruction project will create it’s own lane-narrowing and traffic patterns. Narrowing North Main at the same time, he said, won’t give a true sense of its impact on the neighborhood and community.
Hart’s memo reinforces that stance.
“Ultimately, the same con- cerns that staff presented on December 5th remain,” Hart says in his memo. “It would not be prudent to conduct a road diet trial on North Main Street when typical traffic flow and traffic volumes would be impacted by the bridge project. If the trial were to be conducted concurrently with the bridge rehabilitation, it would not function as a true trial and demonstrate the real benefits, or detriments, that a road diet would have on North Main Street and the surrounding roadway network.”
Hart said that some elements of the trial — like developing a concept and planning for its implementation — can start while the bridge project is under construction.
Under the current bridge timeline, construction would be completed in the fall of 2020. Hart said the town staff recommended a road diet trial of four months, preferably not during the winter. The cost would be about $314,000, which Hart said he would include in his 2019-2020 budget presentation to the council this March.
The subcommittee will also revive discussions on ways to reduce trash and promote recycling. Last June, town staff recommended an 18-month pay-as-you-throw trash bag program. Councilors asked the staff to look into alternatives, like smaller trash bins. Trash is now deposited in 95-gallon carts. One recommendation in agenda documents f or Wednesday’s meeting includes using 65 gallon carts for trash and using the 95-gallon carts for biweekly yard waste collection.
Granby switched in 2009 switched from 95-gallon to 65-gallon carts and saw a roughly 24 percent reduction in trash the first year, maintaining an average of 16 to 17 percent reduction in disposal tonnage the past eight years, according to agenda documents.