Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, made a brief appearance at the Windham Town Council meeting on Tuesday to announce that the Department of Transportation (MDOT) has approved a project to install two full signal traffic lights at the intersection of Windham Center Road and Route 202 in Windham.

“That project has been approved, it will take place,” Diamond said. “There will be a public hearing in the fall and construction starting in the spring.”

Diamond, who lives nearby, said a number of accidents have occurred at the intersection. State crash records list 23 accidents over the past three years. Aside from “proven danger” for passing motorists, high school students often cross that intersection to Corsetti’s after school.

“My biggest concern was the kids on foot who mingled into the traffic,” Diamond said.

After Diamond and Councilor David Tobin met with MDOT Commissioner David Cole to convey this concern last fall, councilors wrote a letter to the commissioner asking the department to consider installing a full traffic signal at the intersection. However, according to the traffic study done at the beginning of the high school renovation, the amount of traffic passing through the intersection did not warrant a full traffic light at that time.

Diamond, a member of the Transportation Committee for the Maine Senate, then urged the department to conduct a second study. That study resulted in a higher traffic count and so the department has agreed to go ahead with the project.

Steve Landry, Assistant State Traffic Engineer, said approximately $100,000 in federal money has been assigned for the project as part of their next two-year work plan which goes into effect this October.

Landry said the department is scheduled to install another traffic light at the busy intersection of Falmouth Road and Route 115 this year. However complications have delayed the construction for the time being.