AUGUSTA — Neighbors’ complaints about trucks getting hung up on a tight right-angle corner have city councilors considering banning heavy trucks from Macomber Avenue, a residential street between Winthrop Road and Western Avenue.

Public Works Director Lesley Jones said some trucks, apparently seeking a shortcut onto Western Avenue from Winthrop Road, have been taking Macomber Avenue; but they don’t always make it all the way through, especially tractor-trailer trucks.

The issue is a tight turn just before Western Avenue that longer trucks can’t make, in part because there is a post on the corner, preventing trucks from cutting the corner by traveling onto the lawn of the home there.

“Some truck traffic from Old Winthrop Road thinks they can use Macomber Avenue to cut through, either as a convenience or they don’t realize it’s not Meadow Road,” another, straighter, road between Winthrop Road and Western Avenue, Jones said. “But then they can’t make the turn. Neighbors are tired of them hitting the post.”

So councilors will consider the first of two readings of a proposal to add all of Macomber Avenue to the list of city streets where heavy truck traffic is prohibited.

Councilors are scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Thursday in council chambers at Augusta City Center.

Councilors are also scheduled to:

• Recognize Michael Murphy for pulling a man from a burning apartment building May 23 on Pleasant Street

• Consider accepting bids on several city-owned properties acquired through nonpayment of taxes

• Consider setting the due date for the first half of property tax payment as Sept. 12; and for the rest, March 13, 2014

• Consider accepting $2,370 for the Police Department, from money seized by the state in the March 8 arrest of Shenika Boyd, who was charged with unlawful trafficking in cocaine

• Consider authorizing the city manager to approve night work for a Greater Augusta Utility District project on Riverside Drive and School Street

• Consider proposed one-year contracts with unions representing Augusta Civic Center maintenance and public works employees

• Consider changes to the city’s excavation and street opening policy to add an exception for “specially approved projects” to policy provisions that ban street opening permits during the winter, when asphalt plants are closed, and on newly paved streets for five years after they are paved.

Jones said the change would allow for special projects, such as proposed natural gas pipelines, to be granted waivers to those policy provisions.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647
kedwards@centralmaine.com