Online tool aims to help you avoid summer road work in Aurora

Yorkregion.com
July 9, 2015
By Teresa Latchford

A new tool aims to help you avoid road construction in Aurora.

The summer months are prime time for road works when general maintenance, sidewalk installations and water main and sewer repairs can delay and frustrate motorists who are eager to get to where they’re going.

However, a new online tool is available to residents and visitors to help them avoid the impacted areas.

“The data of what construction is going on where has always been available to the public,” explained Cory Fagon of Aurora’s engineering department. “This condenses it and makes it more visual.”

The interactive map, now live at aurora.ca, maps out all of the year’s expected road projects in one convenient package. The visual allows users to see the nature of the project, street addresses that will be impacted and contact information for those who have a concern or complaint. All of the information pops up on the screen when a specific project’s icon is clicked.

The project began in January when Fagon felt there was a better alternative to the data spreadsheet the department was using to organize all of the upcoming road projects for the year.

With the support of his manager, Anca Mihail, and co-worker, Jennifer Schoutsen, he was able to create, layout and complete the digital map by March. The map has been live on the website for a little more than a month and has already been visited frequently.

“The best part about this is we can update it as we go, unlike a PDF document, which is static,” Fagon said.

With the success of the project, the town will look into developing a similar map displaying all of the town’s parks and facilities. The vision is to have an online map where users can click on a specific park and see all of its features, including play equipment, splash pads, sport courts and fields, as well as what is in each recreation facility.