Harrisville open house on West Harrisville Road widening draws residents’ complaints over yard takings, compensation and irrigation

HARRISVILLE — City engineers on Tuesday outlined plans to widen West Harrisville Road, drawing detailed questions from residents about how much private property the project will affect and how the city will compensate homeowners.

At an open-house-style presentation, Matt Robertson, the city engineer, said the project would add two 11-foot travel lanes, a 12-foot center two-way left-turn lane, a 2-foot buffer and a 6- to 7-foot shoulder/bike lane, with curb, gutter and a seven-foot sidewalk primarily along the south side of the road. Robertson said the overall asphalt width will be about 50 feet and that the construction would add about 15 feet of asphalt on the south side plus curb and sidewalk.

The design, Robertson said, is intended to improve safety by moving turning vehicles out of through lanes and to preserve an acceptable level of service. He cited traffic counts of roughly 8,000 vehicles per day and noted traffic studies that predicted the corridor would fall from service level C to D within 10 years without…