Council moves to lower speed limit on Airport

Slow progress on a set of traffic lights is forcing Timmins council to slow drivers down slightly on Airport Road.

A by-law was passed unanimously through council Tuesday night to change Airport Road’s speed limit from 60 kilometres an hour to 50 between Westmount and the Lafleur Bridge.

Manager of Engineering Pat Seguin says the change is to help mitigate the amount of incidents on the road and is more of an “interim measure” with the lack of traffic lights.

With the significant delay with Cy Rheault Construction in receiving and installing those lights, pedestrians and motorists alike have felt uneasy at the Westmount intersection. This in part with the increase in traffic due to the new Tim Horton’s location.

Word is, according to City CAO Dave Landers, is that traffic lights won’t be ready for at least a “couple of months” either.

Back in November, Rheault said the lights likely wouldn’t be ready until July. The developer was later given a June 30th deadline by the city to get the lights in place.

And around the area hasn’t been pretty either in that time.

A collision at the intersection back in February resulted in serious injuries to a 10-year old boy. A 28-year old woman was charged for careless driving in the incident.

On Friday, there was a collision near the Timmins High crossing involving a school bus. That area was already under a 50km/h limit.

Seguin makes mention of that area. He notes students can cross at the designated school crossing zone, but drivers aren’t obligated to stop unless there’s a crossing guard present.

However, that’s something the engineer says will be looked at further.

“We’re not done with that area,” he said.

The recommendation to reduce the speed limit is a “proactive approach,” according to Councillor Andrew Marks. He commended Seguin for the efforts.

Councillor Pat Bamford was also pleased with the proposal, adding his disdain for the lack of lights.

He mentions companies utilize temporary lights all the time in areas such as highway construction.

“I can’t believe we can’t get traffic lights in North America, can’t buy traffic lights after a year,” he said, “It doesn’t make any sense.”

Landers says they’ve asked the developer to look at alternatives via temporary street lights, but that hasn’t materialized.

He says the city is exploring legal options.

“We’ve started conversation with legal counsel and reached out to the holder of the performance bond,” he says, “To start the steps that we might have to take in order for the city to move forward on it’s own to make sure that some form of lights are in place until a permanent set can be in place.”

This was to come back for approval at a future meeting, but Councillor Rick Dubeau put forth a motion to make the change. Council unanimously added it to the schedule and passed it through.

CLICK HERE for the council video, under Item 3B.