Woodridge Green-Lights Speed Humps
Speed humps like this one on Garden Street in Farmington are planned for 3 locations within Woodridge Lake./Goshen News Staff
On April 27th the Board of Directors of the Woodridge Lake Property Owners’ Association (WLPOA) voted to approve a plan for installing speed humps on Town roads in 3 locations within the community. The plan represented months of research and collaboration between the Woodridge Lake Safety Committee (WLSC) and 1st Selectman Todd Carusillo.
Speeding has often been cited as a town-wide problem, and while the Town had hoped to improve public safety by implementing a speed camera enforcement program, Goshen does not qualify under State requirements due to insufficient numbers of traffic accidents.
The nominal 1-acre zoning in Woodridge Lake makes it a relatively densely populated part of Town, and residents routinely use the Town-owned roads for recreational activities such as bicycling, running, walking and walking dogs. In February, WLSC Chair Mike Esposito invited 1st Selectman Carusillo to attend a series of committee meetings to discuss potential traffic-calming solutions. Technical challenges included the limited options that are viable for roads with a 25-mph speed limit and a roadbed depth of just 3 inches. Speed bumps or temporary bumps are only suitable for 15-mph roads and require much deeper anchoring than Goshen roads can accommodate.
In the course of the Committee’s research, they found that speed humps, which differ from speed bumps in that they are an integral part of the pavement and raise pavement height gradually, would be a viable solution for Goshen. In conversations with Public Works officials in Farmington and West Hartford, the 1st Selectman confirmed that both towns had been using the humps for years and had not experienced problems such as impeding snowplowing or emergency vehicles.
West Hartford shared its engineering drawings and specifications with the 1st Selectman. He obtained cost estimates for the humps and the required warning signage, totaling roughly $5000 for each location. The WLSC then went about identifying and measuring 3 suitable areas that they considered to be the most urgent, including one on Shelbourne Drive, a major entrance/exit road, and 2 on East Hyerdale Drive, north and south of the Woodridge Lake clubhouse, respectively.
Carusillo acknowledged that this is a Public Safety issue, and the Town has no police force to enforce speed limits. Their relatively modest cost also makes the humps an attractive option for other town roads experiencing high levels of speeding violations. He advised Woodridge Lake representatives that he would include funding for the humps in the 2024 budget once a formal request was received from the Association. The Association requested time to solicit comments from their members and a May response date was set.
76% of Woodridge Lake members responding to the request for comments favored installation of the humps, and on April 27th the Board forwarded its formal request, also thanking Carusillo for his support and leadership on this issue.
While WLPOA maintains a series of recreational amenities for use by its members, roads within the community are owned and maintained by the Town and are used by everyone.
