By Craig Westcott
Harbourside Transportation Consultants is getting a second crack at trying to figure out how to improve traffic safety at the intersection of Dunns Hill Road and Route 60 in Foxtrap.
At last week’s CBS public council meeting, a motion to pay the engineering firm $22,500 to devise a new pilot study and “complete a revised assessment” was given unanimous approval.
Harbourside came up with the current assembly of traffic calming barriers and routing for a year long pilot project that ended last spring. The changes, which included a ban on turning left off Dunns Hill Road onto the CBS Highway or crossing the four lanes of traffic to access Lodge Road, were made permanent this past July. The other significant change as a result of the first pilot project was that cars heading west on Route 60 were no longer allowed to turn left onto Dunns Hill Road; only cars heading east were allowed to access the road by turning right.
The impact on the intersection has met with criticism from residents of Dunns Hill and other attached streets, as well as from All Saints Parish, which corners the intersection and has ended up contending with impatient drivers using its driveway and parking lot as a makeshift route around the intersection.
“We’ve had multiple conversations with some residents in the area,” said Ward 4 councillor Melissa Hardy, who chairs the Town’s engineering committee. “Council has met and we’ve agreed to move forward with an amended pilot project assessment.”
Hardy said the pilot project will last a year, like the first one did. “However, the allowable traffic movements will be adjusted,” she added. “The traffic consultants are currently drafting a new layout and once that’s completed council will determine when the changes can be made and advise the public.”
Council also intends to gauge public opinion with a survey when the new pilot project is nearing completion, Hardy noted.
“Once all the information comes back, council will assess and then we’ll decide on how we want to proceed,” she said.
Pressed for more details by Mayor Darrin Bent about the planned traffic changes, Hardy said the layout of the traffic calming structures will be changed. “We’re just waiting for Harbourside to come back with some information for us,” she said.
Deputy Mayor Andrea Gosse, who represents the area as part of Ward 2, pointed out the new pilot project will encompass more than the intersection itself.
“We had a number of meetings with residents who were very concerned about the area and expressed their concerns about safety, the All Saints Parish parking lot, the Greeleytown Road and All Saints intersection, and all these things are being looked at in this amended pilot project,” Gosse said. “We realize that in this pilot project adjustment, new data will be collected, so we’ll be looking at some numbers on the traffic. Hopefully this will help All Saints Parish with some of the safety issues they’ve been having with traffic, and also make a difference at the Greeleytown and All Saints intersection. So I just wanted to let residents know that we have listened to them and that we are looking at this going forward (to see) what’s the best option.”
That lead Mayor Bent to ask again if anything has been decided as to how the new configuration will look. “Or are we waiting on Harbourside to tell us that?” he asked.
“We’re currently waiting for Harbourside to come back with the recommendations,” Hardy said. “We’ve certainly voiced what we’d like to see there, but we’re waiting for them to come back to see what’s able to go there.”
