KIRKLAND LAKE - Kirkland Lake is making progress on a Highway 66 project it received Connecting Link cash for last year.
Council has approved the location of a new pedestrian crosswalk and a new 85-metre long sidewalk.
The crosswalk will be on Highway 66 west of the Burnside Drive intersection. The sidewalk will be on Burnside Drive and connect Toburn Road to Highway 66.
“Last term, Coun. Owens and I facilitated the Kirkland Lake youth council committee and those students, prior to the pandemic, had identified this area for safety issues. Their concerns were having to walk on the side of the road and having to cross at that pathway,” said Mayor Stacy Wight.
“The inclusion of the sidewalk and this crosswalk will certainly address those issues.”
In the 2023-24 provincial Connecting Link funding, Kirkland Lake received $934,880 to resurface Government Road (Highway 66) and improve the crosswalk.
Last year, Concept Dash Inc. was awarded a $91,550 contract to design the project. This year, a second contract will be awarded for the construction.
SEE: Town steering Highway 66 construction project forward
RELATED: Kapuskasing, Kirkland Lake pick up nearly $6M for Connecting Link work
At Tuesday’s meeting, Concept Dash's Haranath Reddy answered questions from council. One of the primary concerns was why the crosswalk is on the west side of the intersection.
On the west side, Coun. Rick Owen said people have to cross the road twice and are "twice as likely to get hit by a car".
“On the east side, they cross Government Road and they go straight to a driveway going to the college. On the west side, they cross Government Road, they go on sidewalk, now they've got to cross the street again. I don't see that as being the safest way to put it in.”
Reddy said there are safety issues, such as blind spots, if it were to be put on the east side.
One councillor in agreement with the Concept Dash's decision was Casey Owens.
“As for visibility, if we put it on east side, I can guarantee that when you're coming around that corner, and all sudden the lights are flashing, you're gonna run into problems,” he said.
"Whereas if it's on the west side, yeah people have to cross, but there's no blind intersection at Toburn and Burnside. The blind intersection is around that corner so it makes more sense to be on the west side.”
Though Owen said he would have preferred it on the east side, having a crosswalk at all is an improvement to the safety of the area.
Creating a pedestrian crosswalk requires the town to establish a bylaw which must then be approved by the Ministry of Transportation, said CAO Alan Smith. Once it’s approved by council and acknowledged by the MTO, the tender package will be issued for construction.
The bylaw is expected to be at the June 18 council meeting.
Owens asked Smith if the project is going to get done this year and asked if it can’t get done, if the funding would still be available.
Smith said the plan is still to get it done in 2024.
The town is encouraging residents with concerns to provide written comments or make a delegation at the June 18 meeting in relation to the crosswalk and sidewalk locations.
