Two-way traffic plan grinding to an end
Potential grooviness is on the downtown St. Catharines horizon.
City council is set to approve a contract Monday for the final phase of streetscaping on St. Paul Street.
What, you thought downtown construction delays were over with the completion of the Burgoyne Bridge project? Don’t be silly. Work this spring and summer will involve giving the section of St. Paul between James and Carlisle an asphalt makeover. A small section of Carlisle near the intersection with St. Paul will be spruced up, too.
But the most visible change will be a wider sidewalk along the north side of St. Paul.
It will emulate the concrete expanse in front of the performing arts centre across the road.
The idea — and this is where the potential grooviness comes in — is that the various cafes and restaurants that front onto the sidewalk will set up outdoor patios on the wider surface.
Presuming the work is done by the end of the summer and these eateries can get their acts together quickly, one can envision an animated street scene when the arts world and Brock University start a new season in September.
It’s where the beautiful people of St. Catharines-Niagara will gather. The hottest ticket in town. The place to see and be seen.
C’mon, can’t a fella be super positive every once in a while? I mean, gee whiz.
Of course, many of you will simply be tickled pink that the completion of this job will finally signal the end of non-stop road construction in the city core.
Whoa, whoa, let’s not get carried away here. More work remains. Say what? Sorry, old beans, but the final stage of the city’s two-way traffic conversion in the downtown is still on the books.
Yeah, I know. You’re thinking the one-way nightmare ended a long time ago. But you would be wrong.
Much to the chagrin of Ontario wine route travellers, the path through downtown St. Catharines coming from Niagara-on-the-Lake along Queenston Street is a bit of a Rubik’s Cube. That’s because a small section of Queenston at the goofball confluence of St. Paul, Geneva and Niagara streets remains one-way.
Adding to the confusion is that nearby small stretches of King and Church streets are also one-way.
The final stage of the conversion plan is to make all of the above stretches two-way.
At one point, the execution of this strategy was to occur in 2017. Alas, the Ontario transportation ministry has decided to rehabilitate the Geneva Street bridge over Highway 406 this summer and it was determined mucking about the aforementioned goofball confluence at the same time could cause some serious traffic chaos.
So, the final pieces of the two-way traffic puzzle will be put in place next year.
At least that’s the plan. The staff report going to city council Monday notes Niagara Region has indicated it intends to tender the project late this year for a construction start in early 2018. What could possibly go wrong? Hmm ... At any rate, presuming the conversion is completed next year, it would mark the end of a 12-yearlong process.
That’s right, folks, it was back in the spring of 2006 that the Tim Rigby-led city council voted to return two-way traffic to the downtown core over what was intended to be a three-year period.
For those keeping score at home, four councillors opposed the motion, including current council stalwarts Joe Kushner and Bruce Williamson who argued the conversion was too expensive with no guarantee of a positive outcome.
I think most downtown stakeholders and visitors are happy now with the switch to two-way traffic.
Mind you, there are more construction woes ahead to complete it.
That’s OK, though. If sufficiently aggravated, you can hopefully pull over next year and chill out with the beautiful people at a sidewalk cafe.