Posted Apr 3, 2009, 7:37 PM
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Moderator
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: B3K Halifax, NS
Posts: 9,308
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More Roundabouts everyone!
Results of Burnside Expressway study released
BURNSIDE
KEN PARTRIDGE
The Burnside News
The presentation of plans for the creation of the long-overdue Burnside Expressway and Highway 107 Extension certainly didn’t draw the ire that the city’s future plans for Bayers Road and Highway 102 did, but there are still many concerns in the affected communities over increased traffic loads and environmental impacts.
Both roadways were included in the recently presented study done by Stantec Engineering, but it was the study’s conclusion that Bayers Road would need to be widened to handle future traffic growth that attracted most of the media attention as affected land owners protested the impact on their properties.
However, residents of Bedford and Sackville are equally concerned the Expressway will dump more cars into their neighbourhoods and raise serious safety and property value issues.
The Stantec study used the HRM Regional Development Plan as a starting point for identifying where future growth will occur, what the level of that growth will be and what types of traffic volumes that will create in the near and distant future. The study concluded the existing conditions at the current interchange of Highway 102 and the Bedford Highway, Exit 4, would not provide a suitable connection for the new Expressway. It therefore recommends the original route, which would see the expressway connect the end of Burnside Drive directly through to Duke Street in Bedford. Either way, the study shows traffic volumes would be the same on either route.
This would be just the first phase of the Expressway’s construction. The study says a phased approach would reduce the need to build the more expensive aspects of the roadway, while still providing a direct connection as soon as possible.
Phase one is currently scheduled to begin in 2011 and will include a four-lane, controlled access highway with no additional access points along the route. Future phases, creating additional on/off ramps and the eventual direct connection to Highways 107 and 102, would follow as funding permits.
An environmental impact assessment on phase one is set to begin later this spring, while a cost-benefit analysis also needs to be conducted. To date, the study hasn’t considered the creation of high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes on the Expressway to encourage the use of busses, transit vans and carpools. The use of HOV lanes was looked at on the Highway 102 corridor and was found to be a suitable usage.
Future related projects may include the creation of roundabouts to handle traffic volumes, which are nearing capacity, at the Burnside Drive/Highway 111 and Akerley Boulevard/Highway 107 interchanges.
None of the public comment received to date on the study calls into question the need for the Expressway. Quite the contrary, all the commentators agreed the route is long overdue. However, there is a lot of concern over the selected route and the phased nature of the project. For example, until the Highway 107 connection is made, the top pf Akerley Boulevard could see a significant increase in traffic as drivers on Highway 107 swing down to access a more direct route to Bedford, Sackville or Highway 102.
Since Duke Street runs right into Glendale Avenue in Sackville, residents of that community are concerned their streets will also see a significant increase in traffic volumes as people currently taking the Bedford Bypass switch to the Expressway.
The study’s results do show traffic volumes on Magazine Hill, the Bedford Bypass and the Bedford Highway will decrease once the Expressway opens. However, it also predicts the existing infrastructure along Duke and Glendale is sufficient to handle additional volumes for up to 20 years.
Similar concerns surround the phasing of the project, suggesting that impacts on surrounding communities would be mitigated or eliminated if all phases were constructed simultaneously rather than spread out over several years. This will depend entirely upon the availability of funding. As of today, there are currently no budget provisions for the project, although federal infrastructure and Atlantic Gateway dollars are expected to flow into the initiative.
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