Stockbridge — During its June 8 meeting, the Select Board unanimously approved removing the road bump at the intersection of Train Hill Road and Route 183, or Interlaken Road, as well as a speed bump further up Train Hill Road.
According to Town Administrator Michael Canales, the structures are illegal under state law as the bumps aren’t permitted to be installed on any roads with a speed limit of 30 miles per hour or greater. “What happens is that speed bumps tend to become dangerous at 30 miles or greater—they can cause damage to cars, they can cause motorcycles to crash, and other things, because at speeds above 30 miles per hour, it becomes an obstacle not just a speed bump,” Canales said.
Although Train Hill Road doesn’t have a posted speed limit, Massachusetts highway regulations provide that such roads, by default, have a speed limit of 40 miles per hour. Train Hill Road never had a speed study performed and is an unmarked road, Canales said. Per state law, the speed limit on an undivided highway outside of a thickly settled business district—that includes Train Hill Road—is 40 miles per hour, 10 miles per hour faster than on Route 183 in front of Train Hill Road, he said.
In towns that don’t have a designated road commission, such as Stockbridge, the Select Board serves in that capacity. The Board also approved posting signage on Train Hill Road indicating a curvy road and an advisory speed limit of 30 miles per hour even though such a posting is not enforceable by the police department. Additionally, they approved reconfiguring the intersection at Route 183 into a “T” configuration from its current “Y” shape. “Advisory speed limits are anytime you have a winding road or something else and you haven’t made a study or established a speed zone,” Canales said of the yellow signage with black lettering. “What it is, is a warning that the road is winding or … steep slopes for trucks or things like that, that identify a safety concern. Therefore, we are advising a slower speed.” Currently, “slow” speed signs are posted on the road.
The “T” configuration is intended to slow down traffic making a turn from Route 183 onto Train Hill Road, Canales said. “If you were to ‘T’ the road there, in order to make that turn, you almost have to come to a full stop, turn onto Train Hill and then proceed up it,” he said. “Because it’s such a winding road, I think it naturally would slow people down.”
Select Board Chair Ernest Cardillo requested a drawing of the new intersection.
The “T” conversion will cut straight through the island in the middle of the intersection and the two wing-type features on the side will be removed, Canales said. The project does not require an engineering assessment but, if the speed bumps were kept in place, an engineering study would be required since the speed limit is more than 30 miles per hour, he said.
Funding for the project will come from the $20,000 remaining in the town’s road assistance fund and will be done in-house, with some closing of the road needed, he said.
Jan Ackerman, who lives on Averic Road, addressed the board at the meeting and said the speed bumps were installed when Train Hill Road was used as an alternate route due to the Larrywaug Bridge closure. Now that the bridge is open, she questioned spending money and time on the venture since “anybody who lives up there understands you don’t want to be flying up that road because you have a sharp turn right at the top.”
A school bus stop located at the intersection was cited by the Board as a concern for the reconfiguration, with drivers sometimes shooting up Train Hill Road on the inner side of the stopped bus. The “T” configuration should help with that aspect of the intersection’s safety, Canales said.
Ackerman said that, although she doesn’t know if the action “is really necessary,” it’s “probably okay.”
Canales said the police department has issued speeding tickets at the intersection in the past, but no accidents have occurred.
Select Board member Patrick White suggested delaying the vote to poll the neighbors on the changes.
“The main concern right now is that if an accident was to happen, especially a motorcycle, you have a speed bump that shouldn’t be there,” Canales said.
Sean Stephen, who learned about the pending intersection change the following day, said the project “is a waste of money.” He has lived in a historic home just behind the intersection for the past 16 years and said he initiated the speed bumps installation “because people were cutting through, doing 50 miles per hour.” Prior to the speed bumps being added, Stephen said he placed barrels at the intersection to impede the fast-paced traffic prompting the installation of the speed bumps.
Stephen said he sees the “T” intersection as a safety hazard. “If you put a T on here, people coming around that [Route 183] bend doing 40 or 50 miles an hour, people are going to get clocked,” he said. “There’s too much curve on the street here to put it in as a ‘T.’”
At the meeting, Select Board members also:
- Took no action to appoint Karen Levy as Associate to the Conservation Commission to allow more time for other residents to apply as well as have her attend a meeting before approval;
- Approved one-day alcohol licenses for Chesterwood on multiple dates in July;
- Approved a one-day alcohol license for Berkshire Botanical Gardens for a July 1 art opening;
- Approved using $4,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funds to provide planters at Heaton Court;
- Heard an update on Stockbridge Bowl that testing of the facility showed the lake algae as safe;
- Tabled setting the Second Homeowners meeting;
- Heard a presentation from Ackerman, Affordable Housing Trust Fund Vice President, that a consultant has been hired for the Housing Production Plan, with the project to include a housing needs assessment/community workshop, community survey and plan development; and
- Discussed moving forward with the town’s Open Space and Recreation Plan by involving the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, with Canales to present a proposed fee and plan timetable to complete the project at the next Select Board meeting as well as later applying for a grant to update Stockbridge’s 1996 Master Plan.
