East Gwillimbury council grills York Region reps over Bathurst Street work

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 19, 2015
By Simon Martin


February isn’t known as barbecue season. But despite chilly temperatures outside, there was a grilling in the East Gwillimbury council chambers Tuesday.

Members of council basted, skewered and seared representatives from the region over the Bathurst Street and Hwy. 11 “intersection improvements”.

From council’s perspective, it appears the change in the intersection has caused a congestion issue where none previously existed.

“In the last year, it has been the No. 1 traffic problem in East Gwillimbury,” Mayor Virginia Hackson said.

The previous intersection had highway-like entrance and exit ramps off Hwy.11, but the region’s manager of engineering, Paul Acquaah, said those were eliminated to make the intersection more safe for pedestrians and cyclists.

“Residents miss the slip-around lane. They are complaining about it,” Councillor Marlene Johnston said.

What further irked council was the belief that most of the congestion on Holland Landing Road and the intersection comes from commuters trying to access Bradford. “We have a bypass issue,” Councillor James Young said.

“The reality is the congestion is being borne on the backs of our residents,” added Hackson.
“It’s clearly not working.”

Acquaah said the region will continue to monitor traffic at the intersection to see if further timing changes are necessary for traffic lights.

While a Bradford bypass doesn’t seem likely, Young said it is incumbent on the region and the province to address the issue of getting traffic from Hwy. 404 to Bradford. Since the Hwy. 404 extension opened, Hackson said commuters are using Queensville Sideroad to Bathurst to Hwy. 11.

The region has almost completed the north section of the Bathurst reconstruction and will put one more layer of asphalt down in the spring. The south portion of Bathurst reconstruction will start this year with the road being closed between Morning Sideroad and Green Lane from June to December.

The reason the region split the project in two is because of the discovery of Huron Wendat Village in archeological dig along the road.