NORTHFIELD — Gulf Road has been getting heavier traffic than it is designed to handle, residents say, and they want the town to act.
Gulf Road is about eight miles long, and it is the shortest way to get from Main Street (Route 10) to Route 2A in Erving. Since the advent of GPS mapping systems, the road has received an increase in commercial trucking traffic. Police Chief Robert Leighton said that he has “without a doubt” noticed the change in traffic over roughly the last 10 years.
But the road is unsuitable for anything larger than a passenger car, Bill Kilpatrick, who lives on the road, said.
“Some of these trucks are literally the width of the lane on Gulf Road between the double yellow and the white line. And any deviation from a straight line, and they have issues,” he said to the Selectboard on April 3.
The difficulty for trucks and large cars is worsened by the kind of terrain that the road covers. The area is so hilly that large trucks often stall out trying to drive up it, residents say.
Martha Rullman lives on Pratt Hollow Road, in the ravine beneath Gulf Road. “We were down here talking on the phone and I hear this truck noise and I look up and it was backing up right in the road, in a blind curve, because he realized he wasn’t gonna make it up that mountain path,” she said.
Kilpatrick said that trucks on the road also cause traffic congestion, forcing passenger car drivers to try to pass, even though the road has no passing lane.
“There have been issues where they (trucks) have literally driven passenger cars over into the roughage because there isn’t enough room when they come into the turn,” he said.
Rullman said that the worst part of the road is the stretch from Alexander Hill Road to the crest of the hill, about two miles uproad. There are only five houses on that segment of the road, including her house in the ravine underneath the road — which, she and Kilpatrick say, could well be hit by an out-of-control truck going over the guard rail.
“Coming down, they’re making up for lost time,” Kilpatrick told the Selectboard. “Either their load has been lightened or they’ve just decided, ‘I’ll save my brakes.’ … My concern is, the little guard rail that’s there, he won’t even notice he hit it as he goes over the cliff.”
Chief Leighton said that police officers frequently stop drivers, in cars and trucks, going 60 to 70 miles per hour on the mountain road.
“We recognize it as a significant issue,” he said.
Leighton said that most of the truck drivers that have had problems on Gulf Road are from out of the area. The last two trucks that stalled out on the road, he said, were following GPS directions.
The road is also more dangerous in the winter, Leighton said.
“When it’s raining downtown, it’s snowing or freezing rain up on the mountain,” he said. “The trucks don’t realize it’ll be an issue until they start climbing and they’re halfway up the hill.”
Selectboard Chairwoman Tracy Rogers told Kilpatrick that Erving is conducting a traffic study on Gulf Road, and that Northfield will begin its own when the paperwork is properly filed with the Franklin Regional Council of Governments.
“Something has got to be done,” Kilpatrick said. “I don’t have the background, but I know that this kind of traffic does not belong on this road. … Before we have a situation that makes the front page, let’s see if we can get it resolved.”
Contact Max Marcus:
413-772-0261, ext. 261
mmarcus@recorder.com