Planning underway for Route 6 Sippican School entrance

Nov 3, 2020

MARION — The bottleneck caused by end-of-day school traffic at Sippican School may become a thing of the past.

Department of Public Works Engineering Manager Meghan Davis and Office Coordinator Rebecca Tilden presented plans at a Nov. 3 Selectmen’s meeting for a planned egress at Sippican School that will extend from the school’s Park Street entrance out to Route 6.

Davis said contract documents have been reviewed and the plans are being finalized. She said project bidding will take place by the end of the year, and construction will take place in summer 2021, last for 60 days and be finished before the start of the new school year.

In total, the estimated cost is $105,000.

Though the egress is planned to be gated and available for emergency access, Selectmen suggested that it could be used as a normal exit. 

Select Board Vice Chair John Waterman asked if it could be possible to make it an everyday exit to lessen the traffic at the end of every day.

“It’s probably just a permit from the DOT [Department of Public Transportation],” Tilden said. 

Board Chair Randy Parker also suggested that the entrance have a rolling gate instead of a chain link fence with a padlock on it. 

As for lighting at nighttime, he said that Eversource may be able to install a few LED lights.

Waterman also brought up pedestrian safety since the egress will have walking access.

Davis said a pedestrian gate could be a part of a walkway that could be installed. 

Davis and the board agreed that they would run it by Principal Marla Sirois for it.