Intersection change a work in progress
Bay Roberts hopes to link improvements to other infrastructure plans
Realigning a troublesome intersection is still on the Town of Bay Roberts’ to-do list.
Work is progressing toward improving the intersection that connects both Shearstown Road and Cross Road to the Conception Bay Highway.
The main entrance to Bay Roberts coming from the Spaniard’s Bay area isn’t a traditional intersection where all entrances are perfectly aligned.
Both the Shearstown Road and Cross Road are slightly off from each other. That can create havoc for motorists looking to turn left onto Route 70 from either road.
Any work that could be done to help alleviate the issue would first need to go through the Department of Transportation and Works, as Route 70 is a provincial highway.
“It is just a draft proposal at this point,” said Bay Roberts chief administrative officer Nigel Black.
The town’s preliminary plan is to slightly adjust each entrance into the intersection and install a set of traffic lights.
That involves shifting each road entrance slightly to align them enough for the traffic lights.
The town is working with the department in hopes of ironing out an approach, but nothing has been finalized.
“It hasn’t stopped our planning,” said Bay Roberts Mayor Philip Wood.
CROSS ROAD WORK
Bay Roberts is completing infrastructure work on Cross Road and the hope is to do the same kind of work on the Shearstown Road side going from Route 70 to Delaney’s Avenue.
The town had hoped to combine that work with the realignment of the intersection, but it isn’t yet clear that the town will be able to do so.
“Hopefully, it will begin later this year,” said Wood.
Meanwhile, the Shearstown Road-cross Road intersection isn’t the only one Bay Roberts has its eye on improving.
At a recent council meeting, Wood tabled a series of emails, the last dated April 21, he had sent to the department expressing some of the town’s concerns with the stretch of highway from the intersection of Route 70 and Water Street to the turnoff for L.T. Stick Drive.
The town hopes that stretch will be included in any funding for roadwork projects in 2021.
The town says that part of the highway routinely sees 15,000 to 18,000 vehicles per day and it’s starting to show some wear.
“To say that this road is in need of badly needed repairs and paving would certainly be an understatement,” Wood wrote to the department.