Roundabouts for Highway 97/Toop Rd/Carson Dr rejected

At tomorrow's Committee of the Whole meeting - WL Council will receive a report from their Staff discussing the various aspects to "Option 1" for the Highway 97 - Carson Drive - Toop Rd road project in conjunction with MOTI as part of their "Cariboo Connector" project. The report comes with 4 Attachments will outlines the technical details of Option 1

One aspect of the report to likely disappoint members of the local 'Citizens Committee' is Staff's rejection of the Committee's 'Roundabout' proposal for reasons which include:

1) The expected property acquisitions would include the entire commercial area on McKinnon Road, Panago Pizza, the townhouse complex on 10th Avenue, Ranchland Honda, Jubilee Place, Cariboo Custom Monogram, the apartments on Hubble Road,
many residential properties, and possibly several other commercial lots. The cost of purchasing these properties is expected to be significant

2) It is not possible to connect Toop Road to the east roundabout because the roundabout will need to be approximately 6 m below the elevation of the existing road and Toop road is already close to 10%. Keeping Toop Road connected to the highway was one of the initial priorities identified by the public, staff, and emergency responders, and it is considered highly undesirable to force Hubble Road to act as the only access to the neighbourhood. Connecting Sunset Drive to the
roundabout will also be challenging due to the grades. Broadway Avenue will then connect to Sunset Drive, cut through the vacant commercial lot, and run parallel to the highway and on‐ramp (not shown on map). This could mean significant property acquisition from the commercial
property on Broadway Avenue.

3) There will be significant utility impacts with the two roundabout designs, especially on the east
side of the highway, because a large cut will be required. These impacts have not been quantified
but they will likely be significant.

4) The existing signalized intersection at Highway 97 and Carson Drive would need to be closed to
make this option viable because the on and off ramps would encroach into the functional area of
the signalized intersection. The elimination of the signal at Carson Drive would be a benefit to
the highway mobility but would greatly hinder access to and from Carson Drive. Carson Drive has
been identified as a primary route to downtown areas, and direct access from the highway is
considered important to preserve connectivity.

City Staff have therefore concluded:

In summary, the interchange concept as presented does have merit strictly from a highway mobility
perspective, but presents severe disadvantages to City network access. Given the existing terrain,
constructing the interchange with the two roundabouts will have large impacts to the neighbouring
properties and would require significant property acquisition. This option would see significant costs
associated with the structure and property acquisitions that are not realized Option 1. Therefore this
option is not being recommended for this location due to these constraints.

Read the full report here with Appendix 'A' (here), Appendix 'B' (here), Appendix 'C' (here) and Appendix 'D' (here)