Town to post signs to ease traffic woes

Following numerous reports of confusion in traffic flow stemming from the new Canada Customs and Immigration facility here, council agreed Monday night to post new traffic signs to hopefully ease the situation and go back to Abitibi-Consolidated for a full traffic flow study.
And while he agreed something had to be done, Mayor Glenn Witherspoon was vocal about his feelings on why the traffic problems happened in the first place.
“Let’s go back to our original meetings on this. The only reason we picked Option 2 (of the Custom facility proposals) was because of traffic flow,” he remarked.
“A consultant did a study, then we weren’t happy with it, and there was another study. After they’re all done, the only thing we’re lacking is signage.
“We basically know which way we want to move. If it’s not down Central, then it’s down Mowat and Second. We don’t need another traffic study—let’s just [get the signs],” he stressed.
While council agreed signage is needed as soon as possible, Operations and Facilities manager Pat Hickerson, who has been working to determine what should be done over the past several weeks, said signage isn’t a total solution.
“To my knowledge, there’s be no full traffic study done. We want to see what effects any signage we do put in place actually has,” he noted.
“A traffic study is going to have to count vehicles, determine what ways their going—it’s pretty comprehensive,” added Hickerson, noting the two previous traffic reviews weren’t all-encompassing and dealt more with issues such as crosswalks.
CAO Bill Naturkach agreed has been no “full-blown studies in traffic flow” here.
“I’m sure Abitibi is not going to pay for a study. They’ve already paid for two,” countered Mayor Witherspoon. “When a study is done, I can tell you what they’ll find—four one-way streets, two going west, two going east.”
Still, council ended up authorizing that a letter be sent to Abitibi requesting a traffic flow study, as well as agreeing to get traffic signs, which Hickerson said will be posted as soon as the town receives them.
The seven new signs will read, and be posted, as follows:
•On the 200 block of Church Street, a sign will read “Truck route to Hwy. 11/71 East—Veteran Avenue”;
•A sign at the turn onto Veteran Avenue will have a “No trucks beyond this point,” indicating no trucks may continue to travel east on Church Street;
•A sign on Mowat Avenue, between Church and Scott Streets, will indicate “Truck route west,” with an arrow pointing north down Mowat; and
•There will be three signs at the intersection of Scott Street and Mowat Avenue: one indicating no left turns; a second indicating right turns lead to the business district; and a third indicating “Go straight north” to the intersection at Second Street East and Mowat Avenue to get to the turn onto Highway 11/71 West.
While Hickerson proposed the signs be 60×60 cm (about two sq. ft.) in size, councillors agreed he should look into larger ones.
He said yesterday afternoon he’s already investigated into this, and has received quotes from a sign company, with another quote expected today.
The town’s concern over addressing the traffic confusion as soon as possible is not only to ease tourists’ entrance into the area, but also to prevent having to call in police to direct traffic, which could cut into the town’s own wallet.