NEWINGTON - An early stage blueprint for widening Cedar Street and adding a traffic signal where the busy state road meets Alumni Road will not make it to a Town Council discussion.

       Residents from surrounding neighborhoods voiced concerns that the street’s widening and subsequent opening of an Alumni Road barrier would create more traffic volume and more greatly inhibit their ability to travel safely and conveniently through the area. They urged consultants with CDM Smith to explore broader safety fixes to the Cedar Street area at a public meeting that was held in the Town Hall auditorium Aug. 19.

       A lot of the opposition to the plan came from residents of Maple Hill Avenue, Saddle Hill Road and Old Farm Drive--streets that lead onto Cedar Street. They contend that the state Department of Transportation’s (DOT) last widening of Cedar Street, from two lanes to four, caused many of the traffic safety issues that exist at the Cedar/Alumni intersection today. The sentiment was that another widening--to five lanes in order to allow for a left turn signal--will exacerbate that further.

       Joe Balskus, the project manager with CDM Smith, contends that traffic on Cedar Street will not increase because the changes will cover only a small segment of the state road.

       â€�"I’m not necessarily going to change my commute route because there’s a left turn signal,” Balskus said. â€�"It’s a spot improvement.”

       The removal of the DOT’s Alumni Road barrier will encourage traffic to bypass the intersection by taking that route, he said.

       But that’s part of what residents of streets that Alumni runs near are afraid of.

       â€�"There are a lot of balancing issues, but we’re trying to look at this one intersection,” said Economic Development Director Andy Brecher. â€�"And maybe we should be looking at all of Cedar Street, but we have this opportunity to address an existing problem.”

       That being the apparent hazard that making a left off of Alumni Road onto Cedar Street currently poses.

       â€�"We all know that taking a left turn off Alumni is perilous,” Brecher said. â€�"I don’t do it.”

       And in the 10 years leading up to the fall of 2014, 250 of those who have tried have gotten into a motor vehicle accident, according to statistics given by former Newington police chief Richard Mulhall last September. Thirty-three of those incidents resulted in major injuries, he said.

       This is not the first time that the addition of a traffic signal at the intersection has been brought up for discussion. Years ago, a plan involving the relocation of Maple Hill Avenue, the closing of one end of Old Farm Drive and an extension of Arrowhead Drive would have required the demolition of two Newington residences. That blueprint was ultimately rejected by widespread local opposition.

       The DOT put the barrier up on Alumni Road shortly after.

       Using updated traffic signal technology, the intersection can be redesigned without requiring road closures or property seizures, Brecher and CDM Smith consultants said. The proposal was to widen 1,400 feet of Cedar Street on the south side in order to add left turn only lanes.

       While safety was the core objective of the proposed change, Brecher has acknowledged that economic development opportunities on Alumni Road would have been a result. In fact, it was a discussion with the DOT about a requested accommodation from a prospective tenant looking to bypass the Alumni Road barrier, Brecher said.

       â€�"The DOT said, we don’t want a temporary solution, we want a long-term solution,” he said.

       But the plan presented last Wednesday is not long-term enough, residents said. Town resident Steve Silvia suggested realigning Alumni to provide direct access to Route 9--something he said prospective industrial tenants will look for.

       â€�"Alumni Road should have never connected with Cedar,” he said.

       Brecher agrees, but the combination of wetland presence and a projected $100 million cost for that work makes going in that direction â€�"unfeasible,” he said.

       One thing residents and consultants do agree on is the Newington High School area of Willard Avenue. The fixes, which include right turn lanes and two-lane exits within the high school parking lot, will move forward to a discussion before the Town Council in September.