Amherstburg may not be getting stop lights at the corner of Middle Side Road and Howard Avenue this year but improvements are coming to a busy intersection closer to town.
At last week’s county council meeting, Deputy Mayor Chris Gibb introduced a notice of motion that could address safety issues at the corner of Lowe Side Road and Sandwich St. S.
“I consider it a simple issue. Amherstburg has recently completed a traffic master plan that speaks to a lot of traffic calming and improving the accessibility for pedestrians in our community,” said Gibb.
He explained that the town would like to see a pedestrian crossing and the transition from 70km to 50km be increased which would give drivers more time to reduce their speed.
Mayor Michael Prue elaborated, noting that there is an old-age home, a doctor’s office and the Blue Haven Apartments at the intersection which all require additional safety measures.
“There are some difficult roadways and to narrow it (speed limit) down further would provide quite a bit of safety,” said Prue.
The intersection is the responsibility of the county which has decided to look closely at the requests by Amherstburg including doing a complete review of speed reduction and establishing a pedestrian crosswalk.
Lakeshore Mayor Tracey Bailey agreed that it was an intersection that needed to be looked at but her concern was that it seems more Notices of Motion for traffic were coming forward to the county level.
“Is this in alignment with our current workplan or are we going to be realigning the current workplan for something that is new?,” asked Bailey.
Essex County Director of Infrastructure and Planning Allan Botham said that the intersection of Lowe Side Road and Sandwich is currently not part of the current workplan but wants individual municipalities to continue to bring concerns to the county level.
Bailey wanted to know what work could be set aside to proceed with such requests as the one from Amherstburg.
“I want to be mindful of how we conduct our work,” she said.
County CAO Sandra Zwiers said that administration is working on a report that hopefully will add more transparency when it comes to knowing the ranking of priority for infrastructure work.
“Circumstances happen, priorities happen,” said Zwiers.
Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy said that residents are unaware of which intersections are the responsibility of a municipality and which belong to the county. Bondy supported the motion stating representatives of each municipalities “are boots on the ground” hearing resident feedback.
In a separate traffic concern, Prue said that a Community Safety Zone is no longer required at the former Western Secondary School which has been closed for two years. Currently the zone is in effect from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“If you leave it in people will think less of the Community Safety Zones,” he said. Busy intersection to be reviewed by county
By Fred Groves
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