State: Route 4 to Get More Rumble Strips

Vermont Standard

July 21, 2016

Staff Report

There will soon be rumble strips in Woodstock, Bridgewater and through Killington.

The state is repaving Route 4 this summer and new rumble strips are to be installed down the middle of the road as part of a plan to put rumble strips on just about every state highway.

The paving project will begin on Route 4 in Killington and extend 14 miles to the Woodstock Recreation Center. The state anticipates closing multiple lanes throughout the duration of the project. Paving will be done in October.

This is the start of what could be many more rumble strips in the future. Vermont Agency of Transportation is considering rumble strips down the

 centerlines of state highways where pavement width is at least 28 feet, where there’s a three-foot shoulder, where the speed limit is at least 45 miles per hour, where there are at least 1,500 vehicles per day or where there have been a number of crashes.

As part of a new policy, rumble strips will not be placed within 100 feet of residences.

“If they don’t like it, now’s the time to come forward. I don’t know what to tell you,” said Municipal Manager Phil Swanson.

The state removed portions of rumble strips in Quechee and Taftsville this summer after some residents complained that the noise of trucks and cars hitting them was loud enough to shake their homes. The rumble strips were installed along that corridor in 2013 following outrage from five deaths in a three-year period.

Rumble strips have been found to reduce crashes 25-35 percent, the Vermont Agency of Transportation said. Fourteen miles of rumble have been installed so far on five major routes, including Routes 2, 4, 7, 9 and 105.

Select board chair Preston Bristow said the board is in favor of rumble strips, “but I realize those that live near them might feel differently,” he said.