Infrastructure on concerns on council table
Kensington working with province to address infrastructure needs
The Town of Kensington is concerned about infrastructure. Recently, Kensington Mayor Rowan Caseley met with Paula Biggar, provincial Minister of Infrastructure, to discuss a number of items the town sees as priorities in order ensure resident safety and efficiency of the town’s services. He told town councillors about the discussions at a recent council meeting.
“One of our main concerns is our sidewalk project along Victoria Street West.” Caseley said council intended for the project to start this year. But when council learned of the province’s planned storm water project for 2019, they decided to put it off a year.
The mayor said a couple of months ago, the storm water project was delayed to 2020.
“That’s two years later than we wanted to have our sidewalks replaced because they can be dangerous.
“There are broken spots, it’s not fully complete and they’re quite narrow, which can make it hard for sidewalk ploughs to clear them. It’s a high priority for us.”
Another priority is traffic concerns at the Garden Drive, Victoria Street intersection. “Turning left onto Garden from Victoria or from Victoria onto Garden can be nearly impossible. It’s right near the main intersection too so it can cause a real issue.
“But we really don’t know what the solution is.
“The fastest way to fix it would be to shut off that entrance to Garden. But to me, that really isn’t an option.”
Caseley said a traffic circle isn’t the answer either. “We’ll have to continue to look at it. Maybe incorporate a turning lane on Victoria, or we could bring out the edge of the sidewalk, so cars can’t go to the right side in order to get around rather than waiting for traffic to clear.”
Other items Caseley mentioned included clearing roadways of snow in a timely manner, lowering the speed limit around the town’s wellfields, funding or support for a second business/ industrial park and the installation of crosswalks and flags to help make walkers more visible.”
In his report to council, Caseley indicated the minister said the cross walks weren’t allowed, but had no issued with installing flags as long as walkers understood it was to make them more visible and not an indication that traffic was required to stop.
The Journal Pioneer reached out to the minister’s office requesting an interview but only received a written response. In it, the minister described her discussions with Caseley as “good.”
“I have met with my staff to discuss these priorities. We plan to have follow-up meeting with the mayor and town administrator to provide an update and to discuss timelines.”