After about nine years, the preferred solution to expand one of Bradford’s busy arterial roads is almost ready to roll, but not everyone is on board.
Ahead of a public meeting planned for Feb. 24, infrastructure services director Tony Desroches and project manager David Latarius provided the town’s strategic initiatives committee with an update Jan. 28 about ongoing efforts to expand and reconfigure Line 8.
“No ifs ands or buts, this road has to be done,” Mayor James Leduc said.
Still, staff faced criticism from councillors about how it should be done, based on a presentation from Planmac Engineering outlining designs for Line 8 between Sideroad 10 and Barrie Street.
Currently, the road is two lanes (one lane in each direction), with left turn lanes at signalized intersections, and the consultants are recommending different configurations for different sections, including two-, three- and four-lane designs, but several councillors were disappointed to see no option for four lanes along all sections.
While Desroches explained the potential options were intended to avoid the need for expropriation, and consider more traffic making use of the future Bradford Bypass, Ward 4 Coun. Joseph Giordano said it’s “not proper strategic planning” to omit the four-lane option altogether. He and other councillors asked staff to provide the cost for that option, with Ward 3 Coun. Ben Verkaik saying staff should “sticker shock us first,” so council can at least consider the cost.
Ward 6 Coun. Nickolas Harper was especially upset that having fewer lanes in some sections could “bottleneck” traffic, calling it “perplexing” and “ridiculous.”
“You are going to have a full fight from me,” he said. “I will get everybody involved in this.”
The number of lanes was only one point of contention, though, and the recommendation to replace the signalized intersection at Line 8 and Sideroad 10 with a single-lane roundabout also faced push back.
Verkaik worried about the ability for pedestrians or cyclists to cross and make their way north up Sideroad 10 to Henderson Park, but Desroches explained the plan includes two nearby signalized crosswalks for north-south and east-west crossings.
Still, Harper called the roundabout “totally unacceptable.”
“The residents, especially in Ward 6, do not want this,” he said.
Others defended the roundabout, including the mayor, who noted they result in fewer conflicts, and other municipalities — including the County of Simcoe — are favouring them more often.
“I like roundabouts,” Deputy Mayor and committee chair Raj Sandhu said. “I feel that they keep traffic moving.”
Bradford already has several roundabouts, including six just in the Summerlyn Village neighbourhood, and another one already on Sideroad 10 where it meets Line 6.
For the roughly 1.87-kilometre section of Line 8 from Sideroad 10 east to Professor Day Drive, the consultants recommend keeping the current two-lane configuration with existing left turn lanes at intersections.
For the roughly 260-metre section from Professor Day Drive to Noble Drive, the consultants recommend expanding the road to three lanes with one lane in either direction, and left turn lanes for both westbound and eastbound traffic.
For the roughly one-km section from Noble to Barrie Street, the consultants recommend expanding the road to four lanes with one lane in either direction and two left turn lanes for eastbound traffic to turn north onto Yonge Street, plus traffic signals at Northgate Drive.
That concerned Ward 5 Coun. Peter Ferragine, who noted one of the left-turn lanes begins as a through lane, which could confuse drivers and cause similar problems to what’s sometimes seen at Simcoe Road and Line 6, where southbound traffic in the left lane must merge right to continue straight.
Ward 3 Coun Ben. Verkaik also noted the additional traffic signal would require drivers to deal with four lights in a row “back to back to back” in the roughly 1.26-km section from Professor Day to Barrie Street, and asked if it would be possible to have the lights coordinated.
“If people get bottlenecked on the arterial roads, they will go back into the subdivisions to take shortcuts,” he said, noting that would be contrary to council’s strategic priority of traffic safety.
Along Line 8 the consultants recommend a three-metre-wide multi-use path on the north side connecting to the trail along Yonge, and a two-metre-wide sidewalk on the south side, both separated from the road by grassy boulevards, but Ferragine suggested it could be better to have regular sidewalks with bicycle lanes on the road.
The project also includes the roughly 770-m section of Sideroad 10 from Line 8 south to Reagens Industrial Parkway, where the consultants recommend keeping the current two-lane configuration, which raised concerns from councillors about it’s ability to function as a truck route and one of several access points to the bypass.
Through that section, the consultants also recommend extending the sidewalk from Line 8 south, to connect with the existing portion near Reagens, which Ward 2 Coun. Jonathan Scott called a “very good” idea.
That section includes the area where 88-year-old Giselle Gutsche was struck by a vehicle and killed while walking along the gravel shoulder near the Bob Fallis Sports Centre and Bradford Sports Dome on Sept. 30.
The total project is currently estimated to cost $32 million, and if all goes well, construction could take place between 2027 and 2031.
The same section of roads were resurfaced and reinforced in May last year, following a report in November 2023 from the town’s then development and engineering director Peter Loukes.
At the time, both Loukes and capital projects manager Katy Modaressi explained the reinforced portion would not need to be ripped up, and would instead be included in the expansion, which was reconfirmed this week by Desroches.
The project has faced delays after the environmental assessment (EA) process began in 2016, but was later put on hold in spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before being reactivated in fall 2022.
The upcoming public meeting is set to be the last before staff can make a recommendation to council, and Desroches explained “time is of the essence” to wrap up the EA, so staff can dig into design work and begin balancing the schedule with the pending Holland Street reconstruction project, for which a separate update is expected later this year.