WESTBROOK – With the volume of traffic using Route 302 as a conduit to and from Portland every day, it seems every intersection is a busy one – and some, downright dangerous.

That’s why residents are asking the city of Westbrook to address two intersections that are seen as a problem.

Pauline Barrows lives on Route 302, just up the street from one of the intersections, where Route 302 meets Pride and Brook streets.

There, she said, a left-turn arrow makes turning onto Pride Street convenient for westbound traffic, but eastbound traffic turning onto Brook Street has no such signal, and poor visibility there means many people have nearly been broadsided while making the turn.

“It’s just a dangerous, dangerous intersection,” she said.

City Councilor Mike Sanphy, whose ward includes the area, said this week that he has received a number of complaints about it, and wants to see something done.

“It’s wrong,” he said. “The idea is just unsafe.”

Sanphy is a retired police officer, but said one doesn’t have to be a public safety expert to witness the potential for a tragedy there.

“I’ve seen a couple of near-misses,” he said. “One arrow just isn’t sufficient.”

City Administrator Jerre Bryant said the intersection was dangerous even before the left-turn signal was put in. That’s why he initially lobbied the state during the summer for improved signaling at the intersection. At the time, the state was doing work on the Mill Brook Bridge and Little Bridge, which was requiring detours that sent heavier traffic volumes onto Route 302.

Bryant said he convinced the state to put in a turn lane and better signaling at the Prides Corner intersection as compensation for the inconvenience of the detours.

Now, the city is trying to decide if more signal improvements are needed to make the intersection safer. City Engineer Eric Dudley said enough complaints have been registered to hire Gorrill-Palmer Consulting Engineers to do a study of the intersection, which will cost the city $675.

Bryant said the city waited until now to conduct the study because the state has finished working on the bridges for now, so the traffic volumes on 302 are returning to normal.

“It was not a good time to measure,” he said.

City officials are also responding to similar complaints about another Route 302 intersection, with Hardy and Duck Pond roads. That intersection has no formal traffic signal at all, other than a single flashing light.

Dudley said residents have complained that the intersection is unsafe, and also inconvenient. Dudley said drivers looking to turn left from Duck Pond Road onto Route 302 have difficulty during the evening rush hour.

“You can sit there for a while waiting for a gap,” he said.

Sanphy agreed that the intersection is inconvenient without a proper signal, and said he had a long memory of responding to accidents there as a police officer.

“We’ve had everything from head-ons to rollovers,” he said.

Dudley said city officials are meeting with the state this week to decide what can be done, and explore funding any changes through the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System, a regional transportation planning organization.