Pedestrians in Niverville are about to get a more convenient way to cross the busy Highway 311, with the announcement this week that a new lit crosswalk will soon be installed at the corner of Highway 311 and Mulberry Avenue.
Eric King, CAO of the Town of Niverville, says that the installation will take place very soon, and that the work is being undertaken by the town and the developers of the new Fifth Avenue West residential development. King adds that all parties are working hard to make sure the approvals are resolved prior to the school opening next week.
“The crosswalk will be operational within the month of September,” King says. “The signs are on their way and Fifth Avenue Estates is hoping to have work completed prior to the paving [of their new streets].”
While this location will help young people from The Highlands cross to the new high school, the main impetus has been the prospect of large numbers of students crossing the highway to access the new commercial strip, which includes the Dairy Queen, Tim Horton’s, the Shell station, the Great Canadian Dollar Store, Negash Coffee, and Niverville Pizzeria—all businesses with the potential to draw a lot of foot traffic.
“The town invested in the pedestrian crosswalk for those people,” King says.
Some questions remain about how the high school will change the way pedestrians move across Main Street east of the tracks, especially when it comes to people living on the south side of Main.
“We can’t tell kids where to go,” King points out. “We have to wait to see how they cross. If we invested in [a crosswalk] at Second Avenue, would they cross at Heritage Trail? The town’s hope [for now] would be to see people cross at existing intersections on the east side of the tracks where speed limits are 50 kilometres per hour.”
King says that the province highlighted the need for the crossing at Mulberry Avenue in a recent traffic impact study.
“We are doing more traffic counts to ensure the data being used is accurate,” he says. “There is a difference between 1,000 and 1,500 cars a day, and with the rapid growth and the change in who lives/works in Niverville and plus the changes to flow [due to] west-side development, it is important we understand where people are moving to and from. You need time to properly plan, and using two- or three-year-old data just doesn’t work, in my opinion.”
To conduct traffic counts, the town hires an engineering company that uses cameras to monitor the road for a 24-hour period. This provides accurate data about who drives through, turns in which directions, etc.
The town has also previously announced that they’re undertaking new sidewalk work in that part of town. King says sidewalk construction could begin this fall already. Failing that, the work would get underway in spring.
These new sidewalks will link up to the new pedestrian crossing installed last week at the railway tracks.
Another announced change is a reduction in speed limit. Currently, the speed limit on Highway 311 at Krahn Road is 100 kilometres per hour before lowering to 70 at Mulberry, and 50 as traffic approaches the rail line.
Mayor Myron Dyck says that the province has given their approval to move the 100 kilometre per hour speed zone to the west side of Krahn Road, lowering the speed limit in the area of Krahn Road and Mulberry Avenue.
King adds that council’s overall goal is to minimize interactions along Highway 311, and another way of accomplishing that would be to change Arena Road from a two-way street to a one-way street, a change they are seriously considering.
“The one-way at Arena would allow the town to develop two controlled intersections rather than paying for three,” he says. “It’s a more efficient use of taxpayer dollars in the long run. Plus, it moves cars away from the tracks, which puts less residents at risk of being caught on the tracks for some unforeseen reason.”
The town is monitoring the area closely. Mayor Dyck has commented that the situation is fluid, and more changes could be coming in the near future.
