Mass. Highway staffers and consultants got a round of applause at the conclusion of a public hearing Tuesday night on plans for traffic signals at the intersection of Winter and Main streets.

Thirty or so residents said they generally approved of the project, but emphasized that the neighborhood has been promised for years that the lights would soon be installed.

Arthur Verrochi said promises for lights go back 40 years. John Vozzella said he’s lived in the neighborhood for 14 years and been to almost as many hearings on signal plans.

What makes it different this time, the neighbors asked. The state’s response is that the money is there and must be committed within a year or lost to a project somewhere else.

To cost $500,000, the project will reconstruct the mouth of Winter Street where it enters Main (Route 1A) from the east.

That side of Winter now angles in to Main, tempting drivers from the east to race into traffic on Route 1A north. The accident rate at the intersection is twice the average of similar crossroads; 80 percent of the collisions there involve one vehicle hitting another from the side.

In the redesigned intersection, the mouth of Winter Street east will be moved a bit south so that it comes in straight at Main and lines up correctly with Winter Street west.

The new traffic signals will allow a pedestrian cycle and to the delight of a Jean Road resident, give that small street a light cycle of its own for entering the intersection. "The whole world will stop for me to come out of Jean Road," Jean Howard said.

Other residents said it can take 15 minutes to get out of a driveway on Main Street at rush hour and that fast-turning traffic is a hazard for Winter Street residents slowing to get into their driveways. Consultants said they expected it would be easier to get in and out of driveways with traffic stopped for the lights.

Main Street will be marked to create space for vehicles waiting to make left turns. The new signals will have the capability of a left-turn only cycle but it is not planned to be used, at least at first.

Residents and Town Administrator Michael Boynton told the state officials that the lights should be timed from the first to provide a separate cycle for left turns.

Boynton also put the town on record behind the neighbors’ request that the state reconsider its current 45-mph speed limit on Main Street – a residential area.

Speeding prison traffic is a big problem, Henry Scanzio of Main Street said.

How about coming up with ways to slow down traffic as part of the project, Winter Street resident Frank Ryan suggested. The widening of Winter Street’s mouths will only make traffic faster he said.

Consultants explained the slight widening is necessary to satisfy regulations written to make it easier for big trucks to take corners. The hearing team agreed to consider installing flashing lights on Route 1A to warn drivers they are approaching a signalized intersection.

Selectmen Chairman John Hill and Fire Chief Edward Hartmann urged the state to equip the new signals with devices that would allow them to be activated by emergency vehicles to give themselves the right of way.

Hill and Boynton thanked the state for being responsive to the town’s heightened efforts to get the project under way.

This week’s hearing was on the design at the 25-percent-complete stage. There will be another hearing before the design is finished in the spring.

If construction can begin early enough next summer, it could be finished in 2003, state officials said. Traffic flow will be maintained without detours throughout the construction, they said.

According to Boynton, there is a proposal from the state to reconstruct Route 1A and its sidewalks from the center of town north to the Norwood line.

Once the $4 million project gets finished, Walpole would take ownership of that stretch of highway, Boynton said.

"It makes sense," he said, although noting that the town would be taking on added maintenance responsibilities.

Boynton would like to be at the 25 percent design phase with 10 months.

As far as the other side of town, he said, there are no immediate plans to reconstruct Route 1A and its sidewalks from the town center south to Norfolk.

"We haven’t lost sight of it," Boynton said. "(But) we’re pleased that we’re at least able to deal with the north side."