GORHAM – Drivers can now legally zip up to 40 miles per hour through a zone near a new Gorham elementary school off Sebago Lake Road (Route 237) without worry of being ticketed.
Following a traffic study, the Maine Department of Transportation recently upped the posted speed limit from 30 mph to 40 on a stretch of Sebago Lake Road near the new Great Falls Elementary School on Justice Way. But, the change appears to be a gaffe.
The intersection is where school buses loaded with kindergarten through Grade 5 students enter and exit busy Sebago Lake Road.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Norm Justice, director of facilities management and transportation for Gorham schools, said Tuesday about the speed limit hike. He attributed the speed upgrade to a state oversight.
A state numbered highway, Sebago Lake Road handles rush-hour commuters in a traffic mix that includes SUVs, commercial vans, pickups and big dump trucks. Justice said his school bus drivers are aware of the speed limit hike and have asked, “Why the change?”
Gorham officials have moved speedily in an attempt to remedy the speed increase issue near the school.
“The town is already engaged in the process to reverse this,” Superintendent Ted Sharp said Tuesday.
“The town and School Department have requested a review,” Justice said. “They didn’t know the school was there.”
The new school, replacing the former White Rock School, opened this fall off Sebago Lake Road, where the highway also passes through a Little Falls residential area. School construction got under way in the fall of 2009. The new school is a short distance from the Little Falls roundabout where routes 202 and 237 intersect.
Mark Latti, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Transportation, said the state is discussing the speed limit issue with Gorham officials.
“Right now, we’re talking with the town to find a posted limit that the both the town and Department of Transportation will be comfortable with,” Latti said.
Besides busloads of children, many parents generating additional road traffic drop off their children at the school.
Robert Burns, director of Gorham Public Works, said last week the state posted the new 40 mph speed limit signs at the end of September. The stretch of highway was still posted at 40 mph this week.
Compared to other area schools, the new speed limit posting is high. The 40 mph posted limit exceeds the 35 mph speed limit where Narragansett Elementary School, also kindergarten through Grade 5, is located on Main Street (Route 25) in Gorham. At Westbrook High School, the speed limit is 25 mph along Stroudwater Street and that limit drops to 15 mph in the school zone when children are present.
Sebago Lake Road does not have sidewalks, but no children were walking to school early Tuesday morning when buses began arriving.
Latti said that Gorham last year had requested that the state increase the speed limit in that area. Town Manager David Cole said Tuesday the town forwards to the state requests from its citizens about speed limit changes.
Latti said the limit was upped 10 mph after state transportation officials analyzed data gathered in a traffic study. The state clocked drivers and determined that the average comfort zone speed for motorists through that area would be 40 mph.
“When they did the study they weren’t aware the new Justice Way would be a school zone,” Cole said.
Latti said late Wednesday that the speed limit would likely revert to 30 mph soon.
A school bus exiting Great Falls Elementary School on Justice
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