WL Council consider Highway 97 improvements at COW Meeting

Courtesy of the City of Williams Lake:

Editor's Note -- please take note that Councillor Rathor voted in opposition to the COW Recommendation as per below.  Also Councillor Ivan Bonnell was not in attendance at last night's Committee of the Whole meeting as he is on holidays until March and Mayor Kerry Cook was also not in attendance as she is in Ottawa this week lobbying for the 'New Prosperity' mine

Following a thorough review of a staff report regarding City street connections to the Highway 97 four-laning project at Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, Council recommended to the Feb. 11 regular meeting of Council that the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure proceed with the project using Option 1, with a number of refinements.

These refinements include installing further pedestrian improvements such as sidewalks, retaining the current Broadway Avenue alignment, and constructing a bike path near North Broadway Avenue.

Option 1 consists of two connections from the new signalized highway intersection at Toop Road. Drivers heading west will have the choice of turning onto McKinnon Road or 11th Avenue. This option essentially maintains traffic patterns as they are today, yet with modern, improved geometry that will vastly improve safety and usability.

Option 1 addresses safety at Toop Road, improves intersection highway grades, permits truck traffic access to commercial properties, has lower property impacts compared to other options. Option 1 also avoids other unknowns related to new traffic patterns on City streets. Even with the proposal to move the signalized intersection from Carson Drive to Toop Road, it is expected that traffic will use the same routes and patterns as today.

Council also thoroughly reviewed a staff report that addressed an option for City street connections to the project proposed by the Citizen’s Committee. The concept includes roundabouts on either side of Highway 97. City staff and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure reviewed the concept, and created a conceptual lane drawing of the proposed interchange concept with proper acceleration and deceleration lengths and roundabout approaches. Review of the drawing found that while it provides enhanced safety and mobility on the highway, it has a number of significant impacts, including:

• There are significant impacts to private properties. The expected property acquisitions would include the entire commercial area on McKinnon Road, Panago Pizza, the townhouse complex on10th 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.
• A 4-lane structure will be required on Highway 97 to allow for the connecting road between the two roundabouts. The construction of this structure and roundabout excavation would have significant cost implications to the project.
• 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 a 10% grade. 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. This could mean significant property acquisition from the commercial property on Broadway Avenue.
• 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.
• 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.

Due to these impacts, City staff and the Ministry do not support the Citizen’s Committee concept. A previous design incorporating the use of roundabouts had been considered and rejected during project development in recent years.

The Committee of the Whole recommendation was to request that the Ministry proceed with the Highway 97 development incorporating the refinements to Option 1. The recommendation will be considered at the Feb. 11 regular meeting of Council. Committee of the Whole recommendations do not take effect until formally adopted by Council at a regular Council meeting.