The news broke Thursday afternoon that Niverville is about to take its next step towards eventual city status. It’s now official: a traffic light is going to be installed at the corner of Main Street and Fifth Avenue.
The traffic lights are scheduled to be installed some time in late spring or early summer.
According to MLA Ron Schuler, Manitoba Infrastructure has been coordinating with the town on the placement of the signal poles and has purchased the majority of the equipment required for the project.
“Our goal is to complete this project by late spring/early summer, but this is contingent on material delivery,” Schuler wrote in a letter to the town. “We are still waiting for a few traffic signal poles to be manufactured and delivered.”
This busy intersection has long been a source of concern of motorists and pedestrians alike. At high congestion times, such as during the daily rush hours and when the schools are opening or letting out, traffic is often backed up a block or more along Fifth Avenue.
“Safety on Manitoba highways remains a top priority for the Department of Infrastructure,” says Schuler. “This announcement will enhance the overall safety of citizens in the Niverville community and for all who travel through this intersection.”
The project is currently in the final design stage.
Niverville Mayor Myron Dyck says that the town has been advocating for this particular traffic light for about five years. Some urgency was added to the request when a traffic study two years ago pinpointed the corner as an ongoing concern.
“As the community’s continued to grow, and as we have more and more residents utilizing that corner, being that we are largely a commuter town, that corner was identified in the Main Street engineering study we did,” Mayor Dyck says. “It was suggested that lights would be applicable there. And so I’m obviously very, very excited about this announcement. It will really go to ensuring the safety of motorists, be they residents, or be they visitors to our community. Everyone will be able to safely pass through. It’s very welcome news.”
One aspect of the final design that is still up in the air is the question of whether turning lanes will be installed along Fifth Avenue. Dyck indicates that so far his understanding is that there won’t be turning lanes, but that the final design is still being drawn up.
Dyck adds that this is an especially welcome announcement given the current coronavirus pandemic and the onslaught of bad news about businesses closing, events cancelled, and services being reduced.
“When there are times in our lives that are… I’ll use the term darker, we need to have some things that we can look forward to, some things that give us hope,” Dyck says. “We’ve seen in the media people singing to one another on their balconies if they can’t leave their buildings, or people that are trying to volunteer to help seniors, whether it’s trying to advocate for them to get into stores. We need this. The world doesn’t stop spinning, the sun doesn’t stop shining, we’re still breathing… I believe that any semblance of normalcy that one can have is a good thing.”
Dyck adds that his heart is heavy when it comes to people already dealing with mental health struggles. And even those who don’t have a history of this, he says that more people could be experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression.
“I feel for all of that,” he says. “So yes, as a leader I believe that if there’s anything I can do to help, even if people are living vicariously through what we are doing as far as making such announcements as a traffic light, it all helps… My point is that no one suddenly just killed the power to the world. The power is still on. We’re just minimizing it in some ways. So whatever we can do to cast light into the darkness right now, let us do that.”
Even if that light, in this case, comes from shiny new traffic signals.
