Regina Leader-Post

Busiest sections of Arcola Avenue earn ‘F’ grade in city assessment

Report says adding lanes or widening overpass would do little in long term

- ARTHUR WHITE-CRUMMEY awhite-crummey@postmedia.com

A new study shows that stretches of Arcola Avenue are in a state of traffic “breakdown” and require improvemen­ts, but city hall can’t find any cost-effective way to fix the problem any time soon.

The study comes 18 months after council asked staff to explore options for easing traffic concerns on the major southeast Regina artery.

But the report recommends against speeding up work on the road’s infrastruc­ture. Widening an overpass or adding turn lanes would do little to ease congestion in the long term, it says.

Volumes are increasing, and set to get worse. The study assigns a letter grade to four sections of Arcola Avenue, based on the quality of traffic movement during afternoon rush hour.

The result: Two Fs, a D, and a C. According to Mayor Michael Fougere, the avenue isn’t flunking as badly as a student with similar marks. Aiming for As is actually bad policy, since it means wasting money on “overbuilt” road. C and D are ideal from a cost-efficiency perspectiv­e.

But the Fs are grounds for concern.

“The letters are not the same as what you get in a report card,” Fougere said. “If you have a level F it means you really do need to begin to work on some changes.”

F is for roads where vehicles move in lockstep, with frequent slowing and long delays for turning. Two spots on Arcola that fit the bill: The bridge over the Ring Road and the intersecti­on at University Park Drive.

Coun. Lori Bresciani represents that area. She said that part of the avenue is “very congested,” and fears the delays are increasing collisions at intersecti­ons.

“People get antsy and they want to jut out,” she said. “It’s very unsafe.”

According to the most recent data, about 39,000 to 45,000 vehicles pass over sections near the overpass daily. Bresciani believes it has only got worse since, and pointed to trucks the partly built Regina Bypass is now dumping onto the road.

She wants to see quick action to ease the bottleneck­s. The overpass at Ring Road should be widened within three to five years, Bresciani said — rather than the current 25-to-30-year estimate.

Current time frames for other improvemen­ts are “absolutely not” acceptable, said the councillor. That includes work on intersecti­ons like University Park and Prince of Wales, currently set for 2024.

But the report concludes that moving the work up to 2020 would have only a “moderate” impact on those intersecti­ons, and a “minimal” impact on overall traffic flow for the avenue. It wouldn’t be worth millions in new spending, the report suggests, and administra­tion is advising against an accelerate­d schedule.

For the Ring Road interchang­e, which the report calls a “major restrictio­n” for traffic, efforts to add a third lane to one side of the bridge would bring modest improvemen­t in the short term. The road section would briefly rise to an E grade, before falling back to an F by 2040. It would cost an estimated $4 million in new funding.

If council feels the need to act, administra­tion said lane and intersecti­on improvemen­ts around University Park would be a better choice. But the $1 million outlay would only buy an E grade until the Wascana Parkway extension diverts traffic away from the spot. That’s set for 2034.

Fougere said there’s no “silver bullet” for the road, though he’s hopeful the Regina Bypass will have a “tremendous impact” once it’s complete.

He said he gets “revved up” whenever Arcola Avenue comes up for discussion. With his home in Windsor Park, the mayor confronts traffic there every day. But he said expensive efforts to ease his morning commute could compromise other city projects.

“We’re talking a significan­t capital outlay that’s not anticipate­d or not planned for, which means that if we were to pursue it, other projects would have to be delayed,” he said, noting that traffic is increasing in other neighbourh­oods.

He said he’d prefer to look at cheaper solutions — like retooling traffic signalling. “We have a lot of lights,” he noted. Administra­tion cast doubt on that idea in November, however.

Fougere said he will take more time to study the report. He said there needs to be more discussion at committee, especially about the University Park intersecti­on. But he admits a first glance at the results isn’t encouragin­g.

“Reading this report, there isn’t much that could be done to bring it above that F.”

Moving forward we have to keep honouring our treaties and rememberin­g who we are and why our ancestors signed the treaties in good faith... DEBBIE DELORME, Cowessess

First Nation

 ?? BRANDON HARDER ?? Traffic congestion is a regular occurrence at the intersecti­on of Arcola Avenue and University Park Drive.
BRANDON HARDER Traffic congestion is a regular occurrence at the intersecti­on of Arcola Avenue and University Park Drive.

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