The Board of Selectmen last week approved an approximately $23,000 contract with a Bethel-based company to buy two pedestrian-activated flashing beacons that will be installed on lower Valley Road.
Silver Hill Hospital will cover the $22,775 cost for a pair of “rapid rectangular flashing beacons,” or RRFBs, from East Coast Sign & Supply, Inc., according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.
They’ll be installed on two crosswalks where Valley Road runs through the psychiatric hospital’s campus, he told the selectmen during their regular meeting, held March 21 at Town Hall and via videoconference.
“Silver Hill hospital came to us with a concern about traffic and traffic calming,” Mann said. “Their campus is on both sides of the street. They have people—residents and visitors and employees—walking back and forth, so we agreed that we would upgrade some of the signage and refresh some of the striping. They asked if beacons could be installed. They went to the Police Commission. The Police Commission approved it. And we said well we’ll install the beacons but you have to purchase them.”
Mann referred to an approval from the Police Commission—New Canaan’s designated “local traffic authority,” under state regulations—from one year ago. At the time, representatives from the hospital asked for multiple traffic-calming measures, including a sign advising motorists to slow down, relocating “Hospital Zone” signs, installing permanent speed sentries and painting a single shoulder line along 1,800 feet of campus street frontage.
Last week, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the RRFBs purchase.
The DPW Highway Department will install them, Mann said.
The town has several RRFBs already in place—for example, on Park Street near God’s Acre and at Weed and Elm Streets, Wahackme Road at Weed and on South Avenue near the YMCA—and has plans for more, such as at South Avenue and Maple Street and on Gower Road near the South School playground.
[Editor’s Note: The typo in the headline has been fixed to read ‘Valley Road’ not ‘Vallely Road.’ It happens.]
This is a great idea to protect pedestrians. I use the “RRFB’s” when crossing at Weed and Elm and they are very effective at stopping oncoming traffic. I