BRATTLEBORO — Drivers seeking a bit of lawlessness need look no farther than the intersection of Canal and Main streets at the heart of town.
The Hinsdale Bridge, Vernon Road, the Brattleboro Food Co-op/Brookside Shopping Center parking lot, and a transportation hub involving buses and a train station all comprise the large, chaotic patch of pavement known by locals as "malfunction junction," a site that defies standard traffic rules.
Building a Better Brattleboro, the Traffic Safety Committee, the Windham Regional Commission, the Vermont and New Hampshire Transportation Departments have all considered this problem, and various solutions await committee work and state or federal funding.
Brattleboro resident Fred Koch expressed concerns at 2002-03 traffic safety meetings, calling the intersection "very dangerous for pedestrians."
The intersection lacks any familiar traffic pattern - no traffic signal, circle, or four-way stop-sign structure helps drivers to manage it. Moreover, a traffic light two blocks north on Main Street regularly backs up lines of vehicles directly into the intersection and across the bridge. White painted indicators on the street are no longer visible, nor are most of the 200-plus feet of crosswalk.
The right turn from Vernon to Bridge Street has a very difficult angle, even for a passenger car, and drivers making a left turn from Brookside Plaza find their line of sight obscured by the railing of the Kyle Gilbert (Main Street) Bridge.
People turning left from the bridge onto Canal Street or Vernon Street, depending on their levels of daring, recklessness, or impatience, nose their way through oncoming Main Street traffic haphazardly, like boats in an overcrowded harbor, and when a train comes through, things really get jammed up.
One driver in a full-size pickup, while recently attempting to turn from Brookside Shopping Center, leaned out the window to offer an opinion:
"They don't call it malfunction junction for nothing!"
A decade ago, the community widely supported a roundabout at the site, but these plans would have had an impact on the "historic abutments" of the bridge, and due to federal requirements to preserve historic sites, the idea was scrapped.
The Plaza Park was restored in 2005 under the direction of landscape architect Monroe Whitaker of SVE Associates, a regional engineering, planning, landscape architecture, and surveying firm, with funding from sources including Fred Koch. Its green space complements the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, the train station, and the Marlboro College Technology Center, all on Vernon Street.
In thinking about the area, Whitaker suggests that the importance of activities in this location "needs to be given as much consideration as the movement of cars."
Moving the bridge?
One major potential change involves plans for the Hinsdale Bridge, heavily trafficked by people traveling to and from New Hampshire, to be moved south to connect to Vernon Street, and thereby take a heavy traffic load from Brattleboro's commercial district. New Hampshire owns the Connecticut River and bears the financial responsibility for the aging bridge, which needs replacement in addition to relocation.
According to Brattleboro engineer Bob Stevens, a joint transportation committee of New Hampshire and Brattleboro officials had a positive discussion and achieved consensus on a design. This scenario would also remove the train track from the intersection, placing it underneath the new bridge.
But the considerable difficulties of the state of New Hampshire's priorities and limited funding for construction projects mean this plan might not be realized for many years. Many bridges and roads in New Hampshire require repair and replacement.
In the meantime, some area residents have speculated that when Wal-Mart builds its new "superstore" across the river, that new construction will likely be complemented by strip construction down Route 119 to Hinsdale, increasing traffic flow.
A new vision for the river
When construction does occur, organizations like Building a Better Brattleboro (BaBB) hope the current bridge will become a pedestrian bridge, bringing great aesthetic improvements to the riverfront area.
BaBB commissioned a planning study in 2004 to imagine this change, to see the pavement mass reduced, and to bring a green space right down to the river so Brattleboro residents and visitors can enjoy the river views and access now unavailable there.
In the early 1900s, prior to floods and construction of the Vernon Dam, the bridge led to Island Park, which sported a baseball park and advertised itself as "the best dancing pavilion in central New England," with "300 balcony seats for spectators, and free parking for a thousand cars."
Brattleboro resident Wayne Carhart offers a complex historical perspective on the location, pointing out that the first train station came in 1848, but the current station was built higher, in 1910, as automobiles demanded more space for roads.
Another large change in transportation came in the early 1960s, "when the U.S. Postal Service took the mail contract away from the railroads," Carhart said.
A former diner which hung over the Whetstone, off Bridge Street, is now part of the Riverview Restaurant, where Carhart eats every day. He noted that he often walks down the tracks from his apartment at the Hooker-Dunham building on Main Street to get there, as the "sidewalks have shrunk as a result of widening roadways."
He identifies "changing needs" in the area of the intersection, which "have led to changing approaches to address problems." The result has been a disarray of factors contributing to the current confusion in the intersection.
In 2006, the town also acquired property along the river just south of Bridge Street as a necessary part of the Union Station Project, which will renovate the Amtrak station and give Brattleboro the opportunity to re-create a vibrant riverfront location. The recent construction of the transportation center between Flat and Elliot Streets, overseen by Stevens and Associates, represents the first phase of this project.
A 2007 report from architect Michael Singer, "Imagining a Riverfront Site," commissioned by Marlboro College and the Brattleboro Arts Council and supported by Entergy and the Thompson Trust, states that $4 million in federal funding was recently released for phase two, including "improvements to the Amtrak station."
"When the bridge becomes pedestrian and Bridge Street is closed to through traffic, the boundaries now existing will disappear," the report noted, essentially reviving ideas from previous studies. "The site will become open to the town."
The report's "no-build" plan, which seeks to avoid rather than promote heavy construction, features a green space, skateboard park, truck turnaround, water treatment, and the historic gas works building. The study further proposes "low build," "medium build," and "high-build" options.
The report notes that the more modest proposals have received stronger public support, though some have expressed concerns about "maintenance costs of an additional public park" and "whether passive on-site programming would simply create another vacant space rather than a vibrant center of activities."
Funding questions
One small wrench in the plans is that the federal funding, though released, is on hold pending the Town of Brattleboro's audit by the State of Vermont; during this time, there is some concern that the Federal Transit Administration may spend the money elsewhere in the meantime.
Also, the Singer plans may need adjustment to take into account the power lines that would still travel right through the area; the length of trains, which would still block Bridge Street; and new accessibility requirements for people with disabilities.
Matt Mann, transportation planner for the Windham Regional Commission, says the "discussion of raising the platform for [Americans with Disabilities Act] accessibility" is a current topic, and that the Singer plan "would have to adhere to that." He is optimistic the plans will likely be adjusted in the near future.
Moreover, Mann understands that the FTA and the State of Vermont will likely give a "green light" to Brattleboro to spend the Union Station Project money soon, though for ongoing specifics we should look to the Brattleboro planning commission.
Brattleboro Planning Commissioner Rod Francis, hired in January, says "the audit requirements are being addressed by the Town. It is expected that we will hear from the FTA soon regarding the next phase of work, and this will be work booked against the following fiscal year's budget (FY09-10)."
According to both Stevens and Whitaker, more green spaces by the intersection itself would further allow easier snow removal, better pedestrian crossing, and greater aesthetics.
Stevens similarly suggests that rethinking the intersection gives "an opportunity to look at other uses of the street besides vehicular traffic. We want to accommodate cars, but really make sure we're providing for pedestrians, bikers, and transit."
Another principal concern regarding the intersection is its large expanse of vehicular-accessible pavement in the intersection, and the difficulty with safe pedestrian traffic.
Over the past years, this issue comes up repeatedly in the traffic safety committee minutes. In November of 2002, during a period of construction, barrels and lights were placed on the bridge to help protect pedestrians. In the summer of 2006, during the Main Street Bridge construction, a complex zigzag of barrel-marked crosswalks wove pedestrians through the intersection, to the museum, or the bridge.
'Preferred plan'
The plan currently preferred for the intersection by the town, county, and state, involves two coordinated traffic lights, one at the intersection of Bridge Street (Rte. 119) and Vernon Street (Rte. 142), and one at Main Street and Canal Street (Rte. 5). Whitaker speculates that there will still be a good deal of backed-up traffic with this arrangement--possibly more than we currently have.
"That is the going plan, but there is some wiggle-room," Mann said. "It is possible not to install traffic lights." He said the traffic light project is "earmarked" by VTrans, meaning it is fully funded by the state, rather than requiring a 20-percent contribution from the town.
The project is combined with two paving projects-one from Exit 1 of Interstate 91 all the way down Canal Street and up Main Street to the West River, and separately, up Putney Road to the Dummerston/Putney line.
Rod Francis met with VTrans officials in mid-May, and hopes to move ahead with this proposal, described in detail in a 2001 report, "Main Street Reconstruction Project."
"The state will pay for the installation of any traffic signals at Malfunction Junction," Francis said. "VTrans is hopeful that the work (if approved) will begin in the Fall of 2010.
Francis said the town is involved in the current planning process with VTrans, and "all parties are eager to see the best outcome possible given the large number of design constraints, changing traffic patterns and the desire to improve pedestrian and vehicle traffic safety while further enhancing the charm of downtown Brattleboro."
Regarding the possible developments of Union Station and the relocation of the bridge, Mann believes that "if you go with traffic signals, you'll still be able to include that long-range planning."
A different, low-tech suggestion by Whitaker that the town could attempt before investing in the potentially unattractive traffic signals involves a three-way stop for Bridge, Main, and Canal streets, with added green spaces, and dominant routes given to the turn from Canal to Vernon, a major truck thoroughfare, and down Route 5, from Main to Canal. Currently Vernon Street yields to Bridge Street traffic.
Whitaker suggests that placing the stop sign on Bridge Street before the pedestrian crossing will help that situation considerably.
The traffic flow
Traffic volume reports from 2000 show more than 500 vehicles traveling down Canal Street into the intersection during the afternoon peak hour, and when the study projected the effect of a new bridge to Hinsdale farther south along Route 142, it projected marginally higher volumes for the main thoroughfares, but radically different numbers for Vernon and Bridge Streets.
For example, the study projected an increase of over 900 percent in the number of vehicles turning from Canal to Main during the evening peak hour, and a decrease of 2000 percent of traffic from Canal to Bridge Street.
According to the 2000 report, just over half (268) go up Main Street, and just under half (225) cross the bridge, while the remainder (58) turn down Vernon Street or into the Brookside Plaza.
Traffic accident ratios from the intersection (.43 per million vehicles) are slightly higher than average (.39). The 2001 environmental assessment from Clough and Associates that cites these numbers suggests that the stoplights would reduce accidents at the intersection.
Even with the three-way idea, drivers emerging from Brookside Plaza will still have turning difficulties.
Brattleboro Food Co-op Manager Alex Gyori reports that the organization is considering whether to renovate the current building, or whether to construct at new location closer to the road, in what now serves as a parking lot just to the left of the plaza entrance.
Either way, the Co-op, which owns the plaza, plans to keep the access point to the intersection, though as Gyori said, "this intersection needs to be improved, or 'fixed,' because of the flow - it's pretty much a failed intersection."
The Brattleboro Food Co-op board considered a different entrance across from South Main Street, but the grade was too high; Gyori said the business would have to give up too much parking lot area to the slope they'd have to build. He said that as good neighbors, to help take much of the Plaza's traffic burden from the intersection, they would be willing to consider vehicular access across the Whetstone Brook, from Flat Street.
Brattleboro residents who would like to weigh in on these issues can become involved in the planning process, either to discuss the stoplight option, or to form, as the Singer report recommends, a "Friends of the Riverfront Committee," to shepherd the process of developing a vibrant waterfront site that meets the needs of Brattleboro residents.