Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Southpoint Sun - 3
Kingsville council hears plan to widen Highway 3 KINGSVILLE — With the Ontario government’s plans to widen Highway 3 between Essex and Ruthven pending, the ‘Technically Preferred Plan’ for Phase 3, Contract 2 was presented to Kingsville Council last Tuesday, October 13. Engineer Dan Green of GHD Engineering Consultants made the presentation to council. The plan was first approved in 2006 and GHD was tasked with updating the plan and making recommendations to both Kingsville Council and Essex County Council. In 2006, it was approved to make Highway 3 four lanes with a 15-metre grass median, from just east of the Arner Townline (Cty. Rd. 23) to just east of County Rd. 34 (Union Ave.) near Ruthven. Originally, it was intended to cut off all of the side roads leading up to Highway 3 from the north and south along the route. GHD’s plan calls for traffic signals to be installed at three intersections — County Rd. 18, Graham Side road and Belle River Road. The plan also calls for closing off the intersections at Cameron Side road, Marsh Side road and Inman Side road. According to Green, it’s no longer considered safe to have stop sign intersections along four-lane highways. “Sooner or later, the time will come where there will be an accident from vehicles trying to cross four lanes,” he said. “And those collisions are always serious.” A Public Information Centre was set
up online through the month of June and garnered over 1700 visitors to the site, which in turn produced 213 comments. Of those 213 comments, 114 of them were concerned about the side road closures, while 81 supported the project as is. Those concerned about the side road closures were mainly concerned about two intersections — Graham and Cameron. Green said that after meeting with county officials and emergency responders, they decided to go ahead with the addition of traffic lights at Graham Side road, but will not do the same at the Cameron intersection. The plan calls for a Notice of Addendum to be issued in early December, then a return to council early next year about getting started with the road closures. Then later in the year a deign build plan will be required before they can start construction, which is now expected to be complete by 2024. Deputy Mayor Gord Queen went on record to say that he will not be in favour of closing off the side roads. “I will find it difficult to support this,” he said. Councillor Kim DeYong was happy to see that they decided to keep Graham Side road open, but was disappointed in the decision on Cameron. She believes that re-routing traffic off Cameron Side road in particular, will create traffic issues along County Rd. 34 (old Hwy. 3). “While you’re making Highway 3 safer, you’re making dense residential
areas less safe,” she said. She referred to the traffic being diverted back to the intersection of Belle River Rd and County Rd. 34. “Everyone will now converge on an already busy intersection, creating a bottleneck,” she added. Councillor Tony Gaffan wondered when the last traffic study had been done on the side roads and Green responded that one had been done as recently as last September. “It doesn’t quite make sense to me,” said Gaffan. “Is there not a compromise here?” Green explained that south Talbot Road, a gravel based road running along the north edge of Highway 3, would need to be redesigned around the Cameron Side road intersection in order accommodate any sort of compromise. “It would entail contacting landowners and getting all the clearance to make that happen,” he said. Councillor Larry Patterson express concerns about school buses and wondered if there is an appeal process,
should local residents not warm up to the closure idea. Mayor Nelson Santos then spoke about two of his close friends who were killed at the Cameron and Highway 3 intersection many years ago, and reiterated the urgency of getting Highway 3 widened as soon as they can. “School buses are already prohibited from crossing Highway 3 on the side roads, as a result of that accident so many years ago,” he said. In the end the motion to accept the plan as presented was carried, with County Council up next week to review it.
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