DURHAM – Life in Durham is about to get faster (or slower, as the case may be).

That’s because Shawn Bennett, the road commissioner for Durham and Pownal, has been taking a look at the speed limit signs throughout the town. He’s found some of them are wrong, and has crews taking down the improper signs.

When Bennett took over as the Durham road commissioner, he said, he noticed that as he traveled around the town, some of the street signs didn’t seem to be correct to him. “(Some would be) going 35 mph in one direction and then in another direction, maybe 40 mph, so I started looking at speed limits,” he said.

His first step was to contact the Maine Department of Transportation, the agency responsible for setting speed limits. The department sent Bennett a rundown of all of the roads in Durham that it had reviewed and what the limits should be on those roads.

After studying that information, Bennett determined that there were roads in Durham that had improper signs that needed to be addressed.

Setting a speed limit is a multi-step process. According to information provided by Derek Olson, a regional traffic engineer with the Maine Department of Transportation, traffic engineers first go out and observe traffic on a section of the road, noting the speed traveled. The number is set at a speed at which 85 percent of the observed vehicles travel at or below, rounded up to the nearest 5 mph.

“What it amounts to is, if there hasn’t been a speed limit set through the review process, then there shouldn’t be a speed limit sign on the road,” Bennett said. “There are signs posted on roads that haven’t had reviews. We’re taking those signs down.”

While the town of Durham does have the ability to set its own speed limits, it has to use the same review process used by the state, so, like most small towns, it chooses to let the state set the limits.

“It ends up usually being a lot more than small towns want to take on,” Bennett said.

Since there are now roads with no speed-limit signs, drivers shouldn’t make the assumption that there isn’t one. Olson said that, in the absence of a sign spelling out a specific limit, Maine law specifies the limit as15 mph in a school zone while school is in session, 25 mph in a business or residential area or a “built-up portion,” unless otherwise posted and 45 mph on all other roads, unless otherwise posted. Olson added that the state only sets limits on public roads. Private ways are excluded from the process.

Bennett said the speed limit signs in Pownal are correct.

Citing some examples or improper signs in Durham, Bennett pointed to Runaround Pond Road.

“It had a 45 mph (sign) on a section of it when it actually should have been 40 mph,” he said.

In fact, according to information supplied by the Department of Transportation, some sections of Runaround Pond Road are 35 mph, specifically from the intersection of Bowen Road to Royalsborough Road (Route 136).

He also said Chesley Hill Road was posted at 35 mph, but there had never been a review of that road.

“So we took the signs down on that one,” Bennett said.

While the law does dictate the limits, Olson said there are some areas that could be difficult to determine, citing the example of a “built-up portion,” which he said could be interpreted differently by different drivers. “That’s why most roads do have signs on them,” he said.

This speed limit sign on Bowie Hill Road is outdated and in fact, incorrect, said Durham Road Commissioner Shawn Bennett. He said the road has never been reviewed by the Maine Department of Transportation, and should not have a 25 mph sign on it. (Staff photo by Mike Higgins)