By Thia James

City eyes first dual left-turns at 6th Ave. East

Jun 10, 2013 | 6:35 AM

Prince Albert may get its first dual turning lanes installed at the intersection of Sixth Avenue East and 15th Street East within the next five years.

This would mean there would be two left-hand turning lanes from Sixth Avenue East leading onto 15th Street East.

“From what we’ve looked at here initially, it looks like we’re going to be looking at putting in some dual left-hand turns,” director of public works Colin Innes said Friday.

“And so what that’ll do, that’ll help because you get a bit of a queuing that occurs in the left-hand lane as people are wanting to make a left-hand turn, but because the lane that holds the turning movement isn’t as long as the number of cars that desire that movement, you’ve got the other lane has those cars kind of backed up into it. And so that restricts the movement at the intersection.”

He said they foresee having to do this, and they are also looking at installing right-hand turn lanes on the north side of Sixth Avenue East.

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“But that’s something we’re going to have to work out in the full design,” he said.

In order to facilitate any work to upgrade at the busy intersection, city administration would need to close the median on the north side.

A future closure of the median was indicated in a report prepared for city council by Innes, which said it would be “eventual” at a “future point in time.”

The report filed pertains to a request by a couple of area business owners along Sixth Avenue East to have the median on the north side of the intersection removed in part or in total, as they feel it restricts access and is a traffic safety concern. It recommends council gives administration direction as to how to proceed with the median.

“To date, the administration has attempted to convey to new developments in the area the anticipated future change in median access,” Innes wrote.

On Friday, Innes explained the city’s plans to put in dual turning lanes at that intersection would be the reason behind the eventual closure of the Sixth Avenue East median.

“‘What we’ve tried to do is communicate to everybody that we believe we’re going to be closing this, the whole median along there as part of the things we’re going to need to do for better traffic management in the area.”

He said it’s difficult once you’ve given a median opening, to go back and tell the area business owners that they’re going to close the median.

“However, what we’re looking at doing isn’t something that we’re doing, you know, this year, and so it’s a little ways away.”

He said there’s the potential for them doing something in the interim – to open up or remove the median – as indicated in the report.

The owners of two area businesses, Dairy Queen and Accra Lock earlier this year sent letters to city council requesting the removal of the Sixth Avenue East median that sits in front of their businesses. During the last council meeting, a motion to delay a decision on the future of the median was approved, after it came to light that another area business was opposed to the median’s removal.

And in the report, he outlines the specific costs of each. To create an opening in the median in front of the Dairy Queen, the estimated cost is $23,000. The second option is to remove the median in its entirety, but install in its place concrete curbing to provide vehicle turning lanes and to limit access to the alley behind 13th Street East. That would come at an estimated cost of $72,000.

The latter option is seen as the “superior” option of the two.

But for either of these two median changes, there are no funds budgeted towards them.

“We hadn’t planned on either opening or closing the median at this point in time, so we hadn’t budgeted anything for that in this year’s budget. And so, that was the one thing we wanted to identify that we didn’t have a budget to do this, and so, depending on what they want us to do, we’ll have to find some means of how to pay for it.”

If council were to decide to go ahead with making median changes this year, then another project could be put off.

“But we thought that before went and started trying to cancel another project or do something else, we might as well identify whether they want us to do it or not and which one they rather us do and then we can go and plan appropriately.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames