https://www.thespec.com/news-story/8...e-transit-hub/
McMaster University approves budget for $100-million Cootes Drive transit hub
Realignment of Cootes Drive, including new and modified entrances to McMaster University campus, is being discussed as part a $100-million transit hub planned for the corner of Cootes and Main Street West.
McMaster’s board of governors approved the capital budget for the project at its April meeting. Work is scheduled to begin on the 200,000- square-foot hub for GO Transit and HSR buses — plus student and commercial spaces — in 2019 and will continue in three separate phases until 2024. The total budget, which is funded by Metrolinx as part of a $1-billion Hamilton LRT from McMaster to Eastgate Square, is $100,131,000. The hub will replace the existing parking lot.
The project would move campus vehicle access to Cootes Drive, while other existing entrances, including Main Street West, will have a pedestrian focus.
University director of communications Gord Arbeau confirmed realignment of Cootes Drive and new or modified entrances from the four-lane road to campus are being considered.
“Other traffic management matters are being reviewed and considered as part of those discussions,” Arbeau said. “There is an opportunity with LRT and with the transit hub project to consider improvements to traffic management and flow.”
The western terminus of the planned LRT route is to be located in the middle of Main Street West, near Cootes Drive.
“The goal is to facilitate ease of connection, allowing the community to quickly and comfortably move from HSR and GO buses to the LRT and vice-versa,” Arbeau said.
City of Hamilton and HSR staff did not respond to a request for information about any HSR bus routes that would be rerouted to create a link to McMaster’s hub.
In September 2016, HSR staff said they were considering extending the existing Dundas local bus to the McMaster transit hub. There will be no public parking available at the hub, so the Dundas bus that currently links Watson's Lane to Pleasant Valley could provide a Dundas link to the transit hub — GO buses and LRT — via South Street, Osler Drive and Main West to Cootes Drive.
Details of the transit hub were first released in November 2016, as part of the university’s updated campus master plan.
The plan included a second vehicle entrance to campus from Cootes Drive, at College Crescent, between an existing pedestrian controlled stoplight and Main Street West.
McMaster, Metrolinx and the city have not yet determined if the traffic lights — put in after a student was struck and killed by a truck on Cootes — will be removed or not.
The campus master plan calls for a new pedestrian focus for the Main Street entrance, moving the majority of vehicles, including buses, to Cootes Drive.
Because the entire project is being paid for by Metrolinx, the provincial government agency is responsible for the redesign of Cootes Drive and vehicle access to McMaster University. City staff had no comment on the project, and its impacts on Cootes Drive.
Metrolinx spokesperson Vanessa Barrasa said more details of the Cootes Drive realignment and other elements of the project will be shared as they are confirmed.
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