The Colby Echo

Issue date: 3/19/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Rob Kievit

Students and staff of the College as well as Waterville residents have been aware for some time of the poor condition of the road of Mayflower Hill Drive. Potholes have caused cars to bottom out and tires to pop, and have resulted in generally poor driving conditions every time students traverse campus.

In recent discussions with city and state officials, the College has been negotiating terms for takeover of responsibility for the road. Under the new agreement, the College would be able to move forward with long-overdue maintenance and construct "calming factors," such as islands, sidewalks and street-side landscaping to slow traffic down.

Director of Physical Plant Department Pat Murphy explained the city's reasons for delaying work on campus roads. "Each year the town submits a list of roads they would like to have worked on. The state has to prioritize one or two roads per year in Waterville based on usage, and roads traversing campus are not high priority."

Since the state can't afford to address issues with the road at this time, they are willing to hand it over to the College with some conditions. State officials are looking for the College to commit to a number of upgrades to Mt. Merici Avenue and to help to fund improvements to Pleasant and Grove Streets. The College will also have to assist with renovations to Lincoln Street and Chase Avenue, two of the most decrepit roads in the city. After seven years of guaranteed public access to campus roads, the College will have the right to withdraw public access. However, this is an unlikely option since Mayflower Hill Drive is the main entrance to campus.

After the opening of the Diamond Building, pedestrian traffic between Diamond and the entrance to Eustis has rocketed to 2,300 crossings per day between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., and the average speed of cars traveling this section of road is 37 miles per hour, a number city officials claim is high. "The College's main concern is safety," Murphy said.

Consensus among city, state and College officials is that the only way for the road to be redesigned and rebuilt to the standards the College desires is for the College to take over the $6-7.5 million upgrade project. According to a PPD PowerPoint presentation, "Research has been done to establish effective traffic-calming factors. Having more trees bordering the road slows people down, as does signage, and right angle intersections, which are all renovations we plan to install. Our goals go farther than repair."

On March 12th there was a public hearing on turning the roadway over to the College. The city expressed lingering concern for the possibility that Colby might close the road after the seven-year [period?] during which public access to the road will be [was?] mandated by the agreement. President William D. Adams reassured Waterville residents that the College would likely not close the road after spending millions of dollars on renovations.

On April 1 the City Council will meet to begin to consider an ordinance to discontinue the road as a city street.

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