ESSEX TOWN — Over a dozen residents of Sand Hill Road first brought their concerns about traffic noise and pollution before the Essex Selectboard in November of 2023. After two public hearings in 2025, the results from the Lower Sand Hill traffic study are finalized. 

“When we heard from that number of people, it was kind of okay, there's something there,” Greg Duggan said in reference to the town’s response to the Sand Hill residents' concerns. 

Study findings

The study found that unlike passenger vehicles that experienced morning and evening congestion, the traffic patterns for those trucks was steady throughout the day. Aarron Martin, Essex public works director, said that in conducting the study, they tried to draw correlations between the time of day and when the trucks are most active.

“The funny thing is, most of these trucks aren't active during the peaks, peak flow morning and afternoon. So they don't really have significant impacts on those intersections, using the metrics we use to analyze intersections,” Martin said. 

Heavy trucks have a steady traffic curve instead of the spike seen from regular passenger vehicles during commuting hours. However, there were still significant delays at several intersections. The northbound left turn at VT 15 and Sand Hill Road experienced the lowest score with 166.8 second delay in the morning peak and 165.5 in the evening peak while the westbound left turn had 11.8 second delay in the morning and 15.0 in the evening. 

“There's a whole analysis that is done by the transportation engineers on the intersection itself to look at factors and kind of make a determination on what level of service the intersection has,” Martin said. 

Possible solutions

The study identifies possible solutions to the “deficiencies” in the roads and sidewalks. The solutions are separated into short-term recommendations of 1-5 years, medium term recommendations of 5-10 years and long term recommendations in 10 or more years. The recommendations are also categorized into town, state and public-private partnership projects. 

“We kind of came up with some easy, low-hanging fruit to get and then some of the stuff that's going to take time, effort and, of course, money to do,” Martin said. 

The town has yet to decide which actions to take first. Some solutions include creating crosswalk markings and turning lanes at Allen Martin Drive and Thompson Drive as short- and medium-term solutions, creating a grass buffer and bike lanes on Lower Sand Hill Road as medium-term solutions as well as some long-term solutions like signalization on VT 15 and Allen Martin Drive. 

Gina Barrett, a resident of Sand Hill Road region since 2003, spoke before the selectboard on Monday night expressing her continued concerns for the timeline of possible actions. She said there has been discussion of installing a light at VT 15 and Allen Martin Drive since around the time she moved in 23 ago.  

This intersection is located on a state highway and therefore any changes would not be decided by Essex Town. The state has a plan for signalization for the year 2028. The town will rely on the state to provide updates to infrastructure on state roads. Martin said the state has pushed the timeline for the signalization back several times. 

“This is a state project,” Martin said. “It's within the state highway network. We can't facilitate them. We have to wait for their project timeline. I feel like it's been talked about for years.” 

Barrett said traffic has gotten increasingly worse over the time she’s owned her current house. Where she lives, she experiences less truck traffic and more trucks idling as compared to other regions of Lower Sand Hill Road identified in the study. The noise pollution has been “non-stop” and through the night inconveniencing her family and causing disruptions to schedules. 

“I can stand in my yard at two in the morning, take my dog out, or whatever it is and there’s a constant rumble from behind us, from the trucks.” Barrett said. “Or they have a nitrogen tank at Blodgett, and it was squealing for several weeks, and that's 24/7 of squealing.”

At the meeting, Stantec associate Sean Neely said there were no incidents during the recent study which would prompt the research to call the region unsafe and used the technical term “discomfort” to describe pedestrian and biker conditions. Barrett said she remembers several incidents in which there were pedestrian accidents during the time she has lived there.  

In 2018, a school bus collided with a pedestrian and In 2019, there was another pedestrian incident that involved a DUI charge. Barrett also recalls a time her neighbor was hit by a car in her neighbor’s driveway. The incidents occurred outside of the dates of the study and did not involve trucks grade seven through eleven, which the study focused on. However, some residents are still concerned about safety from traffic as well as noise and pollution from trucks. 

“We just keep pulling in these distribution centers, and we're not near the highway,” Barrett said. “Sand Hill was not designed for that. It was supposed to be in harmony with the surrounding natural environment. They've lost their way of enforcing that vision.” 

Another study will likely take place in 2035 to monitor how truck traffic and pollution continues to impact the Lower Sand Hill Road residents. The study is located in the recording and meeting agenda from the Feb. 23 selectboard meeting on the town’s website. 

View the article here: https://www.essexreporter.com/news/government/sand-hill-road-traffic-study-finalized-after-residents-bring-concerns-to-essex-selectboard/article_8f4e5513-c91d-473e-b997-3bf924bd834d.html