Cutting a hill down to size

Driver sight lines improved

Even though the work isn’t complete, drivers on Ellis Road in Bartlett already have a clearer view along Brunswick Road to the south.

Crews may even be a bit ahead of schedule in shaving down a hill that limited the sight lines for east-west traffic waiting at the intersection’s stop signs.

“You can see the difference now,” Wade Towles, the suburb’s assistant city engineer, said this week. “... You can see a long way.”

The hindered view to the south of the intersection created a dangerous situation at the intersection. City officials discussed a remedy for years and awarded a contract to the Pickering Firm in late 2008 to design the improvements. But right-ofway purchases and other factors delayed the project until construction began in mid-June.

The plan is to eventu- ally drop the apex of the hill between three and four feet to clear the view where cars at the stop sign on Ellis don’t have to inch out into the intersection because they can’t see northbound traffic approaching the crossroads.

In addition to lowering the road, crews need to match the driveways of homes along the stretch and stabilize the new level before repaving the resulting road.

“They’re doing OK,” Glen Leath, who lives in the area, said of the work Thursday. “I don’t know if it’s going to solve the problem because at this intersection of Ellis and Brunswick Road, it’s a wreck a week.”

He later added the work has improved the visibility and “hopefully, it will prevent some of the wrecks in

the future.”

Towles said this week that crews were relocating utility poles in the area and working on the driveways. Leath said his driveway is one of those that still needs to be matched at the new road’s level, but said contractors have been accommodating when he leaves his home despite the continued work in front of his house.

“When I want out, and they see me coming, even if there is a bulldozer out there, they move it for me to get out,” Leath said.

The city hopes the work will be far enough along by the end of September to allow traffic through the area. Meanwhile, drivers should continue to use the detours. Northbound traffic is being diverted at Patches to Pembroke Ellis and then back to Brunswick. Drivers headed south are turning on Ellis westbound and continuing to New Brunswick, then south to Landurl where they can go east back to Brunswick or continue south on New Brunswick if headed for U.S. 64.