HADLEY — New speed limit signs will be installed on Aqua Vitae Road as an initial step toward slowing down vehicles on the narrow road that residents say is increasingly being used as a shortcut to get from Bay Road to Route 9.
The Select Board Wednesday voted unanimously to have Department of Public Works Director Chris Okafor put in 25 mph speed limit signs on the mile-long road, which features both paved sections where several homes are located, and gravel sections that are mostly used by farmers to get to their crops.
At the same time, the board directed Police Chief Michael Mason, whose department recently did a study to determine the speeds and volume of vehicles on Aqua Vitae, to do a second study to determine why residents are continuing to express concern about the significant number of vehicles, many traveling too fast, on the road.
Following appeals brought before the Select Board in May, Mason put out the speed board for 12 days that month. The device, positioned near where vehicles traveling east on the road go from the paved surface to dirt, recorded an average speed at 32.5 mph and the volume at just 9.7 vehicles per day, Mason said.
This study found no issues with traffic on the road.
“This road is not showing the types of speeds that we would take any major action on,” Mason said, adding that only seven of the 100 or so vehicles surveyed even fell into a low-risk speed category.
In May, Amy Lamica of 43 Aqua Vitae Road brought forward concerns about the town maintaining a “nice quiet country street” for residents. Lamica said 30 mph is extreme for the road that has become a thruway for vehicles, adding that “hundreds and hundreds” of cars are using the road and many are “barreling” through the unpopulated dirt portion.
Lamica said these motorists include commuters, as well as people bird watching and those launching canoes, kayaks and other boats into the Connecticut River. On Wednesday, she said the residents want 20 mph signs.
Mason, though, said that would be slower than any cars that were measured traveling on the road.
Ed Fedor of 27 Aqua Vitae Road on Wednesday disputed that the police numbers were accurate, arguing that many more vehicles are on the road.
“Our road is extremely narrow, 30 (mph) is completely out of the question,” Fedor said.
Select Board Chairman David J. Fill at the May meeting suggested the town could explore dead-ending the road, or putting up signs for local traffic only and that the road is not a “through way.” There have been concerns about making any changes on a road prone to flooding that could affect farmers’ access from Bay Road, and residents’ access via Route 9.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
