Kimberley City Council has decided to proceed with the reconstruction of the 200 Block of Norton Ave., however several changes have been made to the plan since speaking to residents last week.
On Thursday, April 5, 2018, Council held a special meeting with residents of Norton Ave. to discuss the plans and answer questions. Several concerns were brought up including traffic and speeding, parking, snow removal, and the two-lane multi-use path that was originally proposed.
In an effort to address some of those concerns, staff has amended the plan which now involves replacing the current sidewalk infrastructure with gravel parking on one side, and a one-lane, paved walking path on the other. Curbs, gutters, storm, water, and sanitary pipes will also be replaced, which staff says is the main reason for the project in the first place.
At a regular Council meeting on Monday, April 9, 2018, Council voted to proceed with the new plans for the 200 block.
Senior Manager of Operations Chris Mummery says that the changes made should alleviate some of the residents’ concerns.
“There were some really good comments made at the public meeting that we’ve taken into consideration. The engineering department has taken a look at some options to deal with some of those concerns,” said Mummery. One was asphalt width, the paved roadway width was a little bit of a concern, and definitely a highlight was the multi-use path.
“What we’re recommending is a reduction in the width of the pathway, to not include a bike path, and then use that extra width to add a little bit to the roadway so that bicycle traffic can be on the roadway as would be normally in most areas of town…That’s essentially the bulk of the changes to the [original] design.”
Councillor Kent Goodwin, who was the only Councillor to vote against the motion, suggested that staff adjust the plan further to allow for parking on both sides of the street.
“One of the issues that came up at the meeting, and is mentioned in a couple of the letters we’ve received, is the elimination of on-street parking on the east side of the road…” explained Goodwin. “I’m just wondering if we should consider widening the road enough to get a paved parking lane in on the right hand [east] side.”
After some discussion, Mummery explained that this would require significant changes to the plan including at least a 25 per cent increase in asphalt costs and a complete re-design of the road.
Goodwin also brought up the fact that residents were not confident that narrowing the road would help to deal with traffic and speeding issues.
Mayor Don McCormick says that there are several traffic calming measures within the plan including an LED sign that will tell motorists how fast they are going, a narrowed roadway, future signage to direct traffic to take Gerry Sorensen Way, and an adjustment of GPS programming to also direct traffic to Gerry Sorensen Way.
“Those are some pretty good actions that staff have recommended to try and address the issues…It’s all about incremental change and we’re trying to do something,” said McCormick.
Councillor Albert Hoglund says that the LED sign alone should help with speeding.
Councillor Nigel Kitto says that although traffic calming measures aren’t popular with residents, they do work.
“I really would like to applaud staff planning and engineering for their courage in bringing this proposal forward,” said Kitto. “Everything I have read in modern town planning is about making roads narrower and calming traffic down. It’s a very, very unpopular change with residents unfortunately, but if you read the research it does calm traffic down…I’m quite confident with the plans as they are going forward, knowing with the residents it’s not very popular, but I’m quite confident that it will slow traffic down there quite dramatically.”
Snow removal was also brought up, which Mummery says likely won’t change much from their current structure, however staff will take a look at their current snow management plan for that area after the construction is complete, and try to adjust accordingly.
With regards to the lifespan of the new water, sewer, and storm pipes, Mummery says the expected lifespan is 50 years, however he expects them to last even longer. Storm water collection will also see a 40 per cent improvement, says Mummery, a better collection system all-together.
As for the 100 block, Council voted to proceed with the completion of reconstruction, however staff will engage with residents and potentially come up with an agreement for a local area service.
“Over the course of the last couple of weeks the conversation with a number of residents individually on the 100 block has centred around getting engaged with staff to discuss the local area service,” said McCormick. “That’s a sister motion to this, to direct staff to engage in conversations with residents on what that might look like, what the costs associated with that might be, what the City’s part might be etc.. The work down there is pretty much completed; what isn’t complete is the clean-up; the interface with the yards, but all of the sewer and water and storm drain work has in fact been done.”
McCormick says that a local area service agreement might put construction behind by two to four months, rolling it into the fall, however it is expected to still be completed by next winter.