Final Report - VHB.com

Maine Street from Lincoln! Which is why I continue to navigate through Mill Street every day.) Cindy Folsom
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From: Claudia & Ed Knox [mailto:eknox@suscom-maine.net]
Sent: Friday, September 10, 2010 1:39 PM
To: Mann, Chris A
Cc: Margo Knight; Benet Pols; Nancy Randolph; Vicky Marr; Suzan Wilson
Subject: NASB Study Comments
Dear Chris,
Below please find some appreciation for study 'concepts' that I believe are positive, and then (a longer) critique if
study 'concepts' that I believe would endanger the economic and social well being of the town I live in, Brunswick.
I. Appreciations
Proposed Pleasant Street roundabouts at the end of the route 295 ramp, at Church Street, and at River Road, are
worth really exploring. These locations are the right ones for signaling gradual transitions in land uses as Pleasant
morphs from highway commercial in tone to a more urban and pedestrian commercial/residential mix. The
roundabouts also help to calm traffic while facilitating steady traffic flow and offering opportunities to reverse
direction. These traffic management tools can support Pleasant Street businesses.
Widening of the Coastal Connector is completely logical and economical - it was designed for this destiny. The
overpass recommendation makes sense to me and I hope that it does to Topsham.
Changes in the signage on 295 directing through traffic, should encourage use of the Coastal Connector and
discourage use of Pleasant Street for this segment of the driving public. As roundabouts are built on Pleasant Street,
and as the Coastal Connector is widened and an overpass is added, more local drivers will select the Topsham route
because they will perceive it as faster. Reduction in traffic volumes on Pleasant Street will encourage local shoppers
to patronize Pleasant Street businesses.
II. Critiques
NASB addresses needs to move traffic to Brunswick Landing to the exclusion of addressing the needs of the
Brunswick community to reconnect with its primary commercial roadway, Pleasant Street, and with its
Androscoggin riverfront. Some of the NASB 'concepts' exacerbate the alienation of Brunswick from Pleasant Street
and from the River. Furthermore, the 'concepts' are based upon traffic modeling for limited high use periods, not
upon normal (e.g. peak travel on a weekday in October or May) traffic flow. This approach engineers roadways for
atypical situations, and gives precedence not to local users but to vacationers. This is both expensive to the State
and damaging to healthy local development.
The massive intersection proposed for Pleasant/Mill Street, exactly where the riverfront and Brunswick's historic
neighborhoods begin, is a huge mistake - an insult even. This idea compounds earlier errors in traffic engineering
and will further erode downtown residential and commercial property values.
Mill Street should be kept to two lanes, with dedicated left turns as needed. Traffic should be calmed to a relatively
low speed. Pedestrian access to the swinging bridge and the future riverwalk should have priority. The proposed
elevated pedestrian walkway is laughable - poorly positioned and fundamentally useless. There should be no
median barrier on Mill Street that inhibits pedestrian crossing at Cushing Street.
Any new design for the Pleasant/Mill Street intersection should not preclude the future return of two-way traffic
between Stanwood and Union Streets on Pleasant Street, or, potentially, between Stanwood and Maine Streets on
Pleasant Street. This is Pleasant Street's historic function, to conduct Brunswick drivers to businesses on Pleasant
Street and to allow them to easily travel between the North and South sides of Brunswick's downtown. A one-way
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