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Tamworth Select Board discusses potential four-way stop, bike lanes and Main Street safety improvements; invites state presenters
Summary
Select Board members discussed requests from business owners and residents to add a four-way stop at the Route 113 village intersection and to add 4-foot shoulders for cyclists. The board agreed to invite state traffic staff and a regional planning representative to present before taking a formal position.
Tamworth’s Select Board discussed traffic-safety proposals for the Main Street / village area, including a citizen-led request for a four-way stop at the intersection of Route 113 and the village approach and a proposal for four-foot shoulders (bike lanes) approaching the school.
A presenter who convened business owners and property owners summarized the group’s interest in a four-way stop and in bike-friendly shoulders. Board members and participants noted a mixed history: previous traffic reviews had rejected a four-way stop at that location because of limited sight lines where drivers crest a hill; at present the state appears more willing than in the past to consider converting problem intersections from two-way to four-way stops. “They wouldn’t even consider it if it didn’t have town support,” the presenter said, describing how state work on problem intersections generally requires local concurrence.
Participants reviewed jurisdictional constraints: portions of Main Street in the village are town-maintained while other stretches are state roads, and the state typically gives priority to the state route where it intersects a town road. Board members noted that any physical changes — sidewalks, reconfigured pavement or a boulevard concept — could raise costs and, in extreme cases, require property takings or right-of-way changes.
Board members agreed to ask Bill Lambert (traffic engineer with the state or RPC) to present the traffic study committee’s findings to the Select Board and to invite John Gotchen, the town’s representative on the regional Transportation Advisory Committee, to join that session. The board emphasized that the state will not act on intersection changes without evidence of town support.
No formal motion to change traffic control devices was made at the meeting; board members directed staff to schedule a presentation and outreach to subject-matter experts, then to return to the Select Board for further consideration.
