Improving visibility
Mirror coming to dangerous intersection in Kensington
KENSINGTON – The Town of Kensington is addressing a dangerous intersection.
The town will install a 48-inch (four foot) convex mirror that council hopes will improve visibility for westbound motorists turning off Commercial Street onto Broadway Street North beside the Kensington Food Basket and C&B Corner Café. The cost of the mirror was $541, plus HST and shipping.
“It is worth a try,” Mayor Rowan Caseley told council at its recent monthly meeting. “If it doesn’t work, there is not much harm done. It does work elsewhere, so it’s worthy of a try.”
Caseley said in his monthly report that a town resident requested a meeting with him to propose the convex mirror idea. Caseley added the mirrors work well elsewhere as they increase motorists' sightlines of oncoming traffic.
“A rule of thumb is that every one inch of convex mirror gives one foot of improved sightline,” said Caseley.
Responding to councillors' questions, Caseley said he expects the mirror to be located near the town clock and he believed it is recommended that it be installed 10 to 12 feet in the air.
“The final location is still to be determined because there has to be some investigative work,” said Caseley. “But (there’s) probably going to be some sort of a post put in and installed there, so when you are pulling up by the C&B Corner Café, you can see from your left.”
Chief administrative officer Geoff Baker said the mirror's location will provide maximum visibility in both directions.
“We will put it at a calculated height and then at a calculated point so can we maximize the view distance,” said Baker. “Where exactly that is I don’t know if it’s on one side of the intersection or the other.”
There is no firm timeline of when the mirror will be ready for use.
OPTIONS
Council discussed this intersection during its regular meeting in January.
One option discussed was turning Commercial Street into a one-way street from Broadway Street North to Woodleigh Drive. Another option was removing parking spaces near the intersection, which would improve visibility.
Council debated both possibilities in January and is hoping the convex mirror will solve the problem.
“We’ll see how that works and go from there,” said Caseley. “If it’s something that works great, we may want to do more.”
PLOWING
Also at the recent meeting, Coun. Rodney Mann asked if the town could contact the province regarding the length of time it took for the streets to be plowed on Feb. 8. Some streets were not open until early afternoon following the overnight snowstorm.
The province has taken over all the maintenance responsibilities for the streets in Kensington, including snow plowing.
“(Feb. 8) was definitely a difficult day in just trying to time all of our plowing operations,” said Stephen Szwarc, director of the province's highway maintenance division. “Right from the morning, we were trying to get out first thing, and contractors came off the road, and we had certain plows that had to come off the road. We were plowing roads, and due to the wind, they were blowing right back in on us.
“As the day progressed, we would just look at different spots that we could get out as soon as possible, and the contractors were doing the same. After the fact (Feb. 9), we go back, take a look to see, ‘What time did we get on the roads, what time did the contractors go, and what is the time we should have went out?’
“We will be looking at that and making any adjustments as necessary.”
Szwarc told The Guardian plows try to get on the roads as soon as possible once conditions allow. He noted plow runs generally take three to four hours, but the Feb. 8 snowfall provided challenges.
“It was a difficult day just due to the amount of snow we did get and then how the winds were kind of moving everything around,” said Szwarc. “It definitely was a difficult day, but after every event we take a look at how everything worked and check to see if there are any changes that are necessary."