SOUTH DEERFIELD – Months after two residents gathered more than 220 signatures, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) will take a look at how it can improve the intersection of Routes 5 and 10, North Main Street and Mill Village Road.

The effort, led by Patricia Taylor and Wayne Manley, finally bore fruit, and has kicked off the preliminary design phase for improvements to an intersection that has seen at least a dozen crashes from 2021 to 2023.

“It really is rewarding to see they’re actually looking at it,” Manley said. “It tells us that it’s not going unnoticed.”

Deerfield Planning and Economic Development Coordinator Christopher Dunne announced the movement on the project at a recent Selectboard meeting and noted it now has a MassDOT project database number of 613708.

“It’s still the early days, but it’s still a nice step forward,” Dunne said. Selectboard Chair Tim Hilchey added it’s “exciting because I know it’s been a point of concern” in town, as he thanked Taylor and Manley for their efforts.

The intersection has had a history of crashes and likely even more close calls. The Deerfield Police Department reported that there have been at least 12 crashes in the area from 2021 to 2023 and Police Chief John Paciorek Jr. previously said MassDOT had been working closely with the town. MassDOT’s own crash data portal reported at least 31 crashes in the area from 2014 through May 2023, although the agency warns its public data doesn’t always include all records.

Manley and Taylor connected with each other for the petition campaign in late 2023 after Taylor made a post on Deerfield Now, the community’s unofficial Facebook page. Taylor shared a worrying experience she had when trying to turn left onto Mill Village Road in the dark and Manley, a resident of Mill Village Road, had similar concerns.

Eventually the two wrote a letter to MassDOT, town officials and local legislators urging them to take a look at the intersection and MassDOT said it would look into the matter, especially if numerous residents also expressed concern. After the petition campaign, in which Taylor spent time around town talking to residents and Manley gathered signatures at the transfer station, they submitted more than 220 names to the agency.

While MassDOT has accepted the project, it will likely be a long time before work is done as the agency moves through its design process. A spokesperson for the agency said in April that it had been working with the town to explore options for the intersection and will “engage residents and stakeholders throughout the design process with public hearings and information meetings.”

“I know it’s going to take a while,” Manley added, “but they’ve been doing a lot of widespread surveying down there.”

MassDOT’s project dashboard can accessed at bit.ly/3TafcMu.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.