Town Council

To Comment on this article Click Here

What began as a very contentious issue between residents on Waterloo Street in Port Elgin and the Town of Saugeen Shores' staff, has a reprieve.

Waterloo Street looking north where maple tree was expected to be destroyed

Changes to Waterloo Street, that would have seen immediate construction destroying trees and some residential parking, has been deferred until May, 2012 to allow further investigation into the proposed design impacts on the properties from Market Street to Pierson Avenue.

At the October 11 council meeting, town staff was directed to come up with measures that would minimize the impact of the construction and, especially the location of the newly proposed sidewalk.

There were several options that were investigated:

• Do nothing - a short term solution given that the asphalt surface is in very poor condition

• Resurface existing asphalt - short term solution

• Reduce width of the boulevard or place sidewalk adjacent to the curb with no boulevard - safety is a prime concern.  The wider the space of the boulevard between curb and sidewalk increases safety of pedestrians and reduces winter maintenance hours and costs to maintain sidewalk - boulevard will allow a grass strip where applicable for limited 'Greening'.

• Decrease width of the road - Waterloo has been designated as a 'collector' road and reducing the width is not in keeping with the objectives set out in the Official Plan

• Decrease width of sidewalk - present sidewalk (1200mm) conforms to current minimum provincial standards but industry minimum is expected to be 1500mm wide.

• Relocate existing utilities - some hydro poles would have to relocate resulting in cutting of trees for a three-metre clearance from wires resulting in scarring of any tree within the working zone.

Town Staff has redesigned (Plan B) the street from Market to Green Streets to include:

• standard road width will remain at 8.5m wide

• standard sidewalk width will remain at 1.5m wide

• a barrier curb to provide additional safety feature for non-motoring public on sidewalk

• proposed design is not expected to require removal of trees, shrubs, plantings, etc.

• width of boulevard between curb and sidewalk ha been reduced to a minimum of two feet (2ft.) in the Market Stl to Elgin St. block with the road at Elgin St. intersection to be shifted easterly by three feet (3ft.).

Market Street corner

Apparently, however, Plan B is still not acceptable to residents while staff feels that it is a viable and balanced approach to minimize the impact of the reconstruction.  The reconstruction is expected to take place in sections over several years.

Contractor, Doug Welsh Construction, has agreed to delay the start of the project until 2012 with no penalty to the municipality and has also agreed to hold the unit prices within the present contract.

Scrolling stops when you move your mouse inside the scroll area.  You can click on the ads for more

Survey Participate in our latest Kincardine Times survey

Survey Participate in our latest Saugeen Times survey

Survey Participate in our latest Walkerton News survey

^{for world news, books, sports, movies ...}

Wednesday, October 26, 2011