City council is getting impatient with a local developer over a lack of traffic lights at an increasingly hectic intersection, and now may seek legal action.
At Tuesday's meeting, city Engineering Manager Pat Seguin gave a presentation on reducing the speed limit on Airport Road, through the Melrose area.
"I guess the area of concern is that we've had a lot of development along Airport Road in this zone, between Theriault Boulevard and Lafleur Drive. This is a growth area with many schools, commercial developments, and there are parks in the area. So we looked at the existing conditions, and we have a pedestrian crossing near Theriault Boulevard, at the top of the hill, that goes to T.H. (Timmins High) and then there's going to be some new lights at Westmount that are going to be implemented," said Seguin.
Westmount Boulevard comes to an end at Airport Road. Across the busy road is a new development which includes a hotel still under construction, as well as a Tim Hortons restaurant. The developer, Cy Rheault Construction Ltd, was to install traffic lights complete with pedestrian signals before the Tim Hortons to be allowed to open for business. The developer told city officials that they were having difficulties in acquiring the proper lights, and council approved the opening in good faith.
"What's happening in this zone here is that between Theriault and Westmount, there's a change that changes the speed limit from 50(km/h) to 60(km/h) in that zone, and its going to from 60 through an area that's going to be increased with pedestrians. So we felt it would be more prudent to maintain the 50 kilometre an hour zone through that area," said Seguin.
Complicating matters is the fact that the Westmount intersection is located at the bottom of a downhill stretch where motorists are known to speed up.
"I think that crossing is going to see a huge increase in pedestrians crossing, especially in the winter time when school is on," added Seguin, who was seeking council approval to implement the change.
"I think it makes a lot of sense not to have people accelerating into that new development and the new intersection where we have lots of people crossing," said Mayor Steve Black, before turning the floor over to council.
Councillor Rick Dubeau said the speed limit reduction 'makes perfect sense', as did Councillor Andrew Marks who then prodded Seguin for an update on when exactly the developer will have the lights installed and operating.
"Well, we've been working with the developer on meeting his targets. I guess several letters have been sent out. So we're still working with him, trying to meet those targets. So we're hopeful," replied Seguin.
He said that the city is looking at having to do something in the interim, such as temporary lights, as he is of the understanding that there has been significant delays experienced by Cy Rheault Construction in delivery of the permanent lights.
"Perhaps in the near future council could be updated with an e-mail about the process that's taking place there? That would be good," said Marks.
Black then asked city CAO Dave Landers to elaborate on the latest from a city perspective.
Landers said the CDC (Community Development Committee) had discussions with the Timmins Police Service who raised 'significant concerns'.
"So we have been corresponding with the developer to try to move this along. It appears that permanent street lights would not be in place for at least a couple of months from now. Council's position was that we wanted this in place by the end of June. So, we've asked the developer to come forward with other alternatives. Some form of temporary street lights that could be utilized. That hasn't materialized as of yet," said Landers.
Cy Rheault Construction still has trailer on the development sight, but have been very silent on the matter. Andrew Autio for TimminsTodayHe said there had been some 'back and forth' between Cy Rheault Construction and the city engineering department, but added 'we're just not there yet.'
"We've started conversation with legal counsel," said Landers.
Marks thanked Landers for the information, but stated that June 30 was not council's decided date, it was the developers movement from the November opening.
"Council was very forgiving of it at that point. We were more than lenient to allow this to go as long as it has. So anything we can do as a corporation to expedite this, is the right thing to do," said Marks, who also made a point to thank Seguin for being proactive in terms of reducing the speed along the stretch.
Councillor Pat Bamford couldn't fathom how the developer still hadn't acquired the traffic lights. He said there must be temporary lights available, as they are seen all throughout the province during road and bridge construction projects, although he said he realized he was making it sound simple.
"I can't believe we can't get traffic lights in North America, we can't buy traffic lights after a year? This doesn't make any sense," he said.
He added that the city has 'dodged a bullet' in this situation, even though there have been at least two significant incidents at the intersection since the Tim Hortons was opened.
Black asked Landers to keep council updated about any movement either from the development company or the legal counsel.
The speed limit reduction was passed unanimously.
Calls made by TimminsToday to Cy Rheault Construction on Wednesday were not immediately returned.
