Duane Hicks
With a few local residents expressing alarm after reading in Friday’s Daily Bulletin that the sidewalk on the east side of Portage Avenue from Second Street East to Third Street East, and from Fifth Street to Sixth Street, will be removed next year, the Times got more input from the town as to the reason for this decision.
Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown said Monday that as part of Phase II of the biomass truck route upgrade, the first phase of which starts next month and will continue next year, those two sections of sidewalk will be removed.
But pedestrians still will be able to use the west sidewalk, which will link up with the new pathway on the west side of the underpass.
Brown said the town will be reducing the number of sidewalks more and more in the future, such as during the proposed Scott Street rehabilitation project from Reid Avenue to Colonization Road East, whereby the sidewalk on the south side of that stretch will be removed.
“The two sidewalks on each side of the road are an old design,” Brown explained. “We’re going to one sidewalk. It’s a more common, a more modern design.
“We’re trying to do it where the sun beats down on them and it’s not as slippery and the snow melts off them quickly,” he noted.
“If you notice, we’re moving everything to the north side because the sun’s in the south.
“It doesn’t really matter as much for the avenues. For the Portage one . . . why we’re removing the east one is because the sidewalk through the underpass is on the west side,” Brown noted.
By reducing the number of sidewalks to one per street, this not only will mean less maintenance, and thus less cost, in the long-term, but the town will be able to store snow on the boulevard during the winter for more cost-effective snow removal.
Brown also pointed out that in several parts of town, there are no sidewalks at all, and the town is making it a goal to ensure each road in town has a sidewalk.
The cost-savings from reducing the sidewalks in some parts of town will help save money to pay for sidewalks where there currently are none.
He noted it is a change from the way things have been in the past, and conceded people are used to having sidewalks on both sides of the street.
Brown said 16 residences will be affected by the removal of the sidewalk on the east side of Portage Avenue, and admitted it will mean a little more work for postal workers or paper carriers, for example, but pointed out that currently there are neighbourhoods with no sidewalks and they still get their mail and papers delivered.
While it may not be the best situation, that is why the town is trying to get one sidewalk for each road.
“I don’t think, from a convenience point-of-view, this is going to affect anyone,” Brown said. “This is more about understanding where we’re going, the overall philosophy of the town.
“The town is trying to expand and make sure everyone has . . . one sidewalk per road.”
On a personal note, Brown lives in the north end and says he personally won’t be inconvenienced by the reduction.
As someone who walks frequently, he added he’s more concerned about the fact that a town more than 100 years old doesn’t have sidewalks in some residential areas.
A public meeting is scheduled for tomorrow (April 29) to explain details of the $5.4-million Portage Avenue, Nelson Street, and Victoria Avenue truck route upgrade starting early next month, which will see the town improve the roads, as well as sewer and water, in relation to AbitibiBowater’s biomass boiler project.
