Traffic study prompted by Waterville revitalization

Waterville’s downtown revitalization has prompted the city, Colby College and the state’s Department of Transportation to initiate a study of current and future traffic and parking issues, the Morning Sentinel reported.

The city hired Gorrill Palmer consulting engineers of Gray for $102,000 to do the study, which is due by the end of June.

City and Colby officials have said they hope revitalization will bring more people to live, work, shop and recreate downtown.

Waterville, which has the advantage of pulling in students from Colby College, Thomas College and Kennebec Valley Community College, in recent years has seen investments by Colby in five downtown buildings and in entertainment and tourism projects, including Colby College Art Museum's $15 million Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion, Waterville Opera House’s $5 million renovation, Waterville Public Library’s $3 million expansion and the Maine Film Center’s purchase of the Railroad Square Cinema to create a permanent home for the 10-day Maine International Film Festival.

Randy Dunton, senior engineer for Gorrill Palmer, said the study will include reviewing available data on traffic volume, assessing future scenarios, identifying deficiencies that exist with bike and pedestrian issues, doing a transit analysis, developing recommendations and issuing final reports.

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