Dundas turn lane will stay closed for a while
Work looks complete, but it’s part of a larger storm sewer project
A turn lane from Dundas St. onto Kingston Rd. is nowhere near reopening, even though a job that kept it closed for months has finished. The point where Dundas St. meets Kingston Rd., one block north of Queen St., allows eastbound Dundas drivers to veer onto a tiny side street of sorts that serves as a rightturn lane onto Kingston Rd. It’s also a handy spot for drivers to turn from Kingston Rd. onto westbound Dundas St. , instead of waiting at the traffic lights to make a left turn. For months, the turn lane has been barricaded to allow for a Toronto Water project, forcing all drivers into the intersection to make their turns. Patrick Williams emailed to say the turn lane remains closed to traffic, even though the work that caused it to be barricaded seems done. “There appears to be no reason for its continued closure,” Williams said. “It’s hurting traffic flow at a busy intersection and is a major eyesore.” We went there and found fencing around the turn lane and a Vshaped traffic island between it and the intersection, along with a large, newly installed metal cabinet with a chimney protruding from it. But there indeed appears to be no reason why the turn lane couldn’t be reopened. STATUS: Andrea Gonsalves, who deals with media for Toronto Water, emailed to say the work involved remote mechanical testing and computer programming of a storm sewer overflow tank beneath the street. It is part of a larger project to better manage storm sewer runoff that enters Lake Ontario via the Coatsworth Cut at Ashbridges Bay. A wireless system that connects the overflow tank to a control panel at another location must still be hooked up before the tank can be used, which will be done by next month. Fencing around the turn lane will be taken down in the next few days, but the lane will remain closed “for the time being,” the email said.
A final redesign of the traffic island by transportation services “is currently being investigated in order to improve the intersection for pedestrians. Once finalized, improvements including streetscape enhancements and landscaping are expected in 2013.”
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