Traffic lights to replace four-way stop signs

A planned $2-million improvement to Industrial Road includes the replacement of the four-way stop signs with a set of $200,000 traffic lights.

The proposed upgrade will involve a $1.8-million upgrade to the road surface, as well as $250,000 for installation of an underground watermain running from the Two Mile Hill pump station to the four-way stop sign intersection.

Property owners will be expected to pick up $608,980 of the cost in local improvement charges, calculated on the basis of $849.14 cents per metre, with the remaining $1.19 million coming from general city coffers.

Cal Murdoch, a partner in the Tirecraft business, said this morning he was initially concerned with the proposed road improvement, if not for anything else, because of the $48,000 cost to his business.

After a meeting with the city’s engineering department, however, Murdoch said, he was feeling pretty comfortable with the proposal.

He pointed out it involves rounded curbs and gutters which improve access to his property, a sidewalk on the opposite side of the road and a centre turning lane.

Most of all, Murdoch said, the improvement will mean raising the road elevation to its proper height - correcting a problem caused by the Yukon government in 1991 - so that long recreational vehicles no longer get hung up entering his property.

The new traffic lights will likely slow down traffic moving up and down Industrial Road but will mean an increase in traffic flow for larger volumes of vehicles moving along Quartz Road, Murdoch said.

Property owners will have the option of financing their share of the cost over 15 years through the standard financing provisions for local improvement charges.

City council will vote next week on the proposed project and local improvement costs.

Clive Sparks, director of city operations, told council Monday evening the installation of the watermain is not part of the local improvement charge but rather is required as an infrastructure upgrade to handle the growth in the Marwell industrial area.

The watermain work will stop at the intersection, only to be continued with further upgrading along Industrial Road in the future, he said.

It makes sense, Sparks added, to install the new section of watermain while the road is already dug up.

Asked if other utilities like power and communication will be buried at the same time, Sparks said there’s been some discussion about it, though it doesn’t appear likely.