Ellsworth starts one-way traffic

ELLSWORTH – Motorists will encounter new traffic patterns, including a one-way road heading south toward Bar Harbor, as they travel through Ellsworth today.

The changes are part of a major reconfiguration of the Ellsworth Triangle at the intersection of Routes 1 and 3 scheduled to begin today. The changes were designed to improve the traffic flow through one of the city’s major intersections and to accommodate new commercial expansion in the area.

“The road doesn’t handle the traffic we have now,” said City Manager Michelle Beal. “This is going to increase mobility and help the flow of traffic. It can only be better.”

Ellsworth police officers were scheduled to be out in force throughout the day in an effort to keep traffic flowing smoothly and to deal with any confusion that stems from the changes in long-standing traffic patterns along High Street, Beckwith Hill and Route 1 near the Triangle.

“Most everybody will be working at some point during the day,” Ellsworth Police Chief John DeLeo said Tuesday. “We’ll keep an eye out in case somebody does turn in the wrong direction.”

Preliminary work for the project has been going on throughout the summer, but the major portion of the $3.3 million project will take place over the next six to eight weeks, according to Beal.

The main component of the project will be on Route 3 southbound, heading toward Trenton and Mount Desert Island. That road will become one-way between McDonald’s Restaurant and Myrick Street, providing two travel lanes heading up the hill. Northbound traffic on Route 3 will turn right and be routed onto Myrick Street, which has been reconfigured to handle the additional traffic. That work has created two left-turn lanes at the intersection of Myrick Street and Route 1 to allow two lanes of traffic to turn left onto Route 1.

Crews now are widening the intersection of Route 1 and High Street to allow those two lanes to flow directly onto High Street.

A temporary traffic light has been installed at the Route 1 and Myrick Street intersection.

In addition, the new entrance to the Maine Coast Mall will be opened to traffic, and left-hand turns from the southern mall exit near McDonald’s will be eliminated.

According to Beal, crews also will reconstruct the entire intersection between McDonald’s and Rite Aid including the traffic island. They will grind and repave Route 3 to Myrick Street and widen the road from Myrick Street to Beechland Road in order to add a center turn lane in that area.

The area of most concern to police is the section between McDonald’s and Myrick Street, according to DeLeo. The concern, he said, is that motorists will automatically make turns to head north on Route 3 in that section of the road.

“People are creatures of habit,” he said. “They’re used to going to China Hill and then turning left and heading down the hill.”

Construction crews will have cones and barriers in place to direct traffic at all ends of the construction area. Police officers, including an officer on motorcycle, will be posted throughout the area to deal with problems, DeLeo said.

The project was conceived in response to commercial development interests along Myrick Street, Beal said Tuesday. The area is the only designated commercial development area in the town, she said, but developers balked at building projects because of the state Transportation Department’s requirements for extensive and expensive road improvements.

“The first developer in would be responsible for bringing the road up to current standards and making it able to handle the traffic for their project,” Beal said. “Nobody wanted to be first. So the city decided that we would bring the road up to current standards and when a project comes in, the only thing they have [to] deal with is the traffic they bring in.”

Those developers pay a proportional development fee that will help to cover the cost of the project, she said. In addition, the area has been designated as a tax increment financing zone, which allows the city to earmark a portion of the tax revenues from development in the area for this and other economic development projects.

“We’re hoping to create well-paying jobs in other areas of the city and to develop a more diverse city than we have now,” Beal said.

Work on the project is expected to be completed by the end of October.

rhewitt@bangordailynews.net

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