The Main Avenue pilot project to temporarily trial a redesign to improve pedestrian safety while maintaining a steady flow of traffic is one step closer to becoming a reality.
Town council discussed during its April 18 meeting two options that administration had recommended from an original five potential choices prepared by Alberta Transportation engineers following numerous consultations with local officials, stakeholders, industry members and the public.
Director of planning and operations Angie Lucas told council she has been collaborating for more than a year with Alberta Transportation officials "to start the conversations about reviewing the corridor and what mitigation designs could be created."
Local input was "gratefully received" by Alberta Transportation throughout the process, she said.
From the Town of Sundre's perspective, Lucas said she made sure there was a clear understanding as to what a high load corridor is and directed staff to track the number of high load permits that are issued to go through town.
"We're up to about 3,500 at this point in time since last June. So it is a considerable amount of high load heavy traffic that you have coming through the town."
That traffic mostly seems to be heading north from the south, hauling out equipment to various areas or even going to West Fraser, she said.
"We factored out the needs of Alberta Transportation for what they need to do, which is provide a functional roadway for movement of regular traffic and high load traffic," she said.
"Then we looked at the community's needs, including tourism, general economic development and general community safety, because this also acts as your main street through your downtown."
So the road serves many purposes and one of her goals was to ensure Alberta Transportation officials understood the effect on pedestrian and local traffic the 2008 switch to four lanes had on the community.
Part of the consultation process involved inviting a busload of Alberta Transportation representatives to personally experience walking the sidewalks along Main Avenue, she said.
"I got them to walk from the Red Deer River bridge down past the IGA along that sidewalk. At the end of that walk, they were convinced that we had a problem," she said.
"Once they experienced that, they better understood what we were talking about when we were saying we have a serious amount of pedestrian safety here that is not good for the community, but also not good for economic development in the downtown. So from then on, we were on the same page."
Then came the drafting of the conceptual designs that could be taken to the public, which all eventually led to the options being presented before council, she said.
Of the five options originally presented by Alberta Transportation, administration recommended two of them with a preferred choice.
The cheapest to implement was the back-to-back left turn lanes with the traffic light remaining at Centre Street, since that redesign mainly involves only repainting lines, said Lucas.
However, that redesign also offered the least amount of space for pedestrian and vehicular safety, she added.
The other option, which is more expensive because it's more complex to implement, is to trial three mini-roundabouts at Second, Third and Fourth Streets while leaving the traffic lights at Centre Street.
"This option does offer the most amount of increased safety for both pedestrians and vehicles, and it was preferred actually by almost 30 per cent of the respondents on the feedback sheets," said Lucas.
Additionally, that redesign offers opportunities for town officials if they should in the future want to increase the width of the sidewalks on either side of Main Avenue at various areas between the grocery store and the Red Deer River bridge, she said.
"That offers a lot more safety, whether for shopping or for tourists."
That also allows the potential to install landscaping features like benches and garbage receptacles, which right now is not possible to do because the sidewalks are far too narrow, she said.
Those sidewalks are in terrible condition and will need to be worked on in the future, but until Alberta Transportation knows what to do with Main Avenue, that capital project is on hold, she said.
"For now, Alberta Transportation wants to try something out to see if it works to increase safety for pedestrians and vehicles while allowing traffic to continue flowing."
She told council administration felt the three mini-roundabouts with the traffic lights at Centre Street is the best option. Lucas also pointed out that some local stakeholders and developers she spoke with also felt it's a good option.
"From their perspective, it would show that Sundre is being proactive, very ahead of the game, and that we were stepping out and stepping up, instead of just taking what's handed down."
The pilot project would not cost the Town of Sundre in terms of materials or construction. However, "we would have to participate in some snow and gravel maintenance."
The Main Avenue corridor is owned by Alberta Transportation curb to curb, but the Town of Sundre owns the sidewalks, she said.
In discussions with the town's operations manager over the past couple of winters, Lucas said there have been complaints along the corridor coming from pedestrians and business owners. An option for the future might be to remove the snow rather than just push it aside, she said, adding there is a location available to store snow and gravel, "so that is not an issue."
"That would provide a completely different environment for both pedestrian and vehicular users throughout the entire downtown corridor. If we want to build that downtown, make it strong and have people walking and shopping down there, you have to create an environment that is pleasant and safe for them to be in."
Coun. Chris Vardas moved to support Alberta Transportation's downtown corridor enhancement redesign with the three mini-roundabouts.
Coun. Myron Thompson wondered how large trucks that struggle to cross the Red Deer River bridge would navigate around the mini roundabouts.
"The big loads don't go around them (the mini roundabouts)," said Vardas.
"They'll just drive over them."
Thompson then asked whether Alberta Transportation even had the money in its budget to take the project on this year.
Once council directs administration as to which option is preferred, Alberta Transportation would be informed of the decision and the project will end up on the list, said Lucas.
"That's step one," she said.
"Our goal is to try and get it up and running this fall if we possibly can because we want to test it for a full year."
Although he supported the motion, which council went on to carry, Thompson said, "I'm not going to hold my breath."
