Final Report - VHB.com

4.8 Strategy 2B – Improve Mobility along Pleasant Street
Strategy 2B involves the evaluation of measures to improve vehicular, bicycle, and
pedestrian safety and mobility along Pleasant Street between the I-295 Exit 28
interchange and Mill Street in the Town of Brunswick. Strategy 2B is intended to
reduce congestion and vehicle conflicts by implementing access-management
techniques and by providing new off-corridor connector roadways that provide
alternative access to businesses and other secondary roadways.
The Study Area for Strategy 2B encompasses the Pleasant Street (US Route 1)
corridor, beginning 0.6 mile east of the I-295 Exit 28 interchange ramps and
extending easterly approximately 1.5 miles through a primarily commercial zone to
where it ends at the intersection of Mill Street (the easterly continuation of US Route
1) and Stanwood Street. The Study Area also is bounded by the Lower Road Rail
Line to the south and the Androscoggin River to the north. The Study Area is located
entirely within the Town of Brunswick. Based on input from the Study Advisory
Committee and feedback from the public workshops and public informational
meetings, three primary options with variations of Options 1 and 2 were developed,
for a total of five Feasibility Study options.
4.8.1 Common Features
The five Feasibility Study options are similar to one another in several ways. The
following proposed features are common to most of the options, as described in
detail in this section.
Gateway Roundabout: All five Feasibility Study options consider a roundabout
design at the Pleasant Street/Old Portland Road intersection. The envisioned highcapacity
roundabout
is considered a
western “gateway”
because it introduces
a speed and character
transition between the
I-295 interchange
ramps and the busy
commercial district
along Pleasant Street.
The roundabout is
large enough to easily accommodate trucks and high traffic volumes but small
enough to have a measurable traffic-calming effect. All five Study options evaluate
the access and mobility effects of the roundabout for Old Portland Road (US Route
1), Pleasant Street, and the I-295 ramps. Among the expected benefits is the
elimination of the high-speed weaves that currently occur because of the reversedirection
ramps in the Pleasant Street median in the vicinity of Old Portland Road.
Summary of Options 110