By Andreas Yilma Citizen’s News
PROSPECT — The state Department of Transportation is planning to upgrade traffic lights at two busy intersections.
Mayor Robert Chatfield said he plans to meet with DOT officials and have them tour both sites to discuss the state project. The installation of the new traffic lights would be at Waterbury Road (Route 69), Hotchkiss Field, Scott Road intersection and the other at Route 68, Old Schoolhouse and Straightsville Roads intersection is expected to be completed in 2024. The new lights would be hoisted on a pole rather than on a wire.
DOT will fully fund the project because the lights are outdated, Chatfield said, though the exact cost of the project was not determined.
Prospect Council member Kathryn Zandri asked for the town to consider requesting that that the length of the traffic light on Scott Road be increased due traffic backups.
“We have a stacking issue that at times backs all the way up to the carpet store and especially in the afternoon,” Zandri said.
The distance from the intersection to the Prospect Flooring at 19 Scott Road is about 1,000 feet.
Zandri said “you’re lucky to get three or four cars through that light.”
Council member Pat agreed with Zandri that the length of a green traffic light on Scott Road is often short.
Chatfield said he can bring up the length of the light at his next meeting with DOT officials.
“I think it’s a quality of life issue for the people who live on Scott Road at the top to always look out their front door and have all those cars stacked and sitting there,” Zandri said.
The sidewalk subcommittee task force was hoping that the new lights could’ve been done in conjunction with new sidewalk projects but the pedestrian walkways is expected to be finished next year, Chatfield said.
The town has been awarded two grants for additional installation of sidewalks, the Connecticut Connectivity Grant from DOT for $600,000 for new sidewalks on north side of Union City Road (Route 68) and the east side of Old Schoolhouse Road and the Small Town Economic Assistance Program in the amount of $500,000 that would be matched by $125,000 from the town. The STEAP grant would be for additional sidewalks from Hartford HealthCare on Route 69 towards Waterbury as far as officials could go.
DOT previously committed funds through the Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program to complete a sidewalk on the west side of Route 69. The sidewalk runs from the intersection of routes 69 and 68 to the Hartford HealthCare Medical Group building at 73 Waterbury Road last year.