Another temporary four-way intersection is on the way for Sixth Avenue.
Stop signs will be going up on Pine Street North at Sixth Avenue for the rest of this year's Connecting Link work on the downtown stretch. It's the second temporary all-way intersection on Sixth Avenue approved by Timmins council in the last month.
The change was brought up by Ward 5 Coun. Steve Black, who said a resident complained about the number of accidents at the intersection. Because of the design of the neighbourhood, he said the vehicles involved in crashes end up on her property near her front steps.
"When I inquired with the police service, I was told there was 15 accidents within a two-month period. That is enough for me to say that I'm comfortable warranting a change," he said.
At the beginning of June, temporary stop signs were put in on Sixth Avenue at Birch Street North. The rationale for that change was also based on the increased traffic in the area as drivers detour around the massive construction project that's closed Algonquin Boulevard from Balsam to Brunette.
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Coun. Kristin Murray worries about not having flashing lights to remind people about the temporary stop signs.
"Because it seems as though people are not necessarily paying as much attention to the newer stop signs, just out of habit," she said.
A flashing beacon can be put above a sign, but altering the sign in any way poses a risk of it not legally being a standard stop sign, said director of public works and environmental services Ken Krcel.
"The biggest issue we're going to have here is procuring flashing lights in time because everything takes time. This is the first I've seen of this, so for us to order flashing lights we could be anywhere from four to six weeks to get flashing lights to put above temporary stop signs because we weren't aware this was coming down the pipe," he said.
There's no date when the new stop signs will be installed.
Because it's an extremely busy intersection, Black asked if Timmins Police could help by having an educational presence in the neighbourhood.
