Council to hear report about Lakeshore upgrades

The city will find out what's needed to improve Lakeshore Road when a report is presented on Monday.

The report from Director of Infrastructure Planning Randy Cleveland will be presented during the regular city council meeting and is part of a 20-year servicing plan that would lead to upgrades to Lakeshore Road from Richter Street to Barnaby Road, in four phases.

It asserts that Lakeshore will need to be upgraded to handle anticipated traffic growth in the South Mission and is based on Lakeshore Road traffic projections for 2030. The report shows average peak morning traffic counts northbound on Lakeshore from Barrera to Cook Road in 2011 were at 792, while the projection for 2030 is 985. The same stretch of Lakeshore in the peak afternoon rush was 628 in 2011. The projection for 2030 is 896. 

The Lakeshore Bridge is at the end of its service life and will need to be replaced, the report says. Spring flooding in the last two years has come close to topping the bridge span. Crews had to remove floating logs that bashed into the bridge.

Some of the goals of the 20-year servicing plan are to:

• Provide new alternative routes to and from the South Mission, such as a new south perimeter and a realigned Stewart Road;
• Provide opportunities for traffic to redistribute to existing roads through alternative routes, such as an expansion of DeHart Road to redistribute from Lakeshore and Gordon and Lakeshore to Stewart and Benvoulin;
• Use a two-lane arterial with a centre turn lane cross-section to handle anticipated traffic demand.

John Sleeper
jsleeper@infotelnews.ca
250-718-0428