Residents of Niverville have an opportunity this week to weigh in on traffic control options being considered west of town.

Morrison Hershfield has come up with a few conceptual designs for Provincial Road 311 between Krahn Road and Wallace Road. Mayor Myron Dyck says as they look to the future and consider the development that could occur in that part of town, they will have to determine what will be needed to safely and efficiently move motorists through the community.

"Right now it's sort of at the conceptual design stage," says James Kennedy with Morrison Hershfield. "So, we'll present the public here the alternatives that we've come up with to get their input and to finalize this project."

Alternatives presented at this week's open house

Kennedy explains that with all of the development happening on the west end of Niverville, PR 311 will need to be upgraded in order to handle all of the traffic that will be generated. He notes Morrison Hershfield did a traffic impact analysis, looking at traffic volumes and then designed a few alternatives in order to safely and effectively handle the traffic volumes. 

Each of the three alternatives being presented to the public has a roundabout approximately halfway between Krahn and Wallace roads. Kennedy says the town has expressed interest in having a roundabout and by attending the open house you can learn about the pros and cons of such an intersection.

"It's actually quite an effective way, a safe way of handling higher traffic volumes," he says. "So, it's a really good alternative to signalization."

Kennedy says their conceptual designs offer a combination of a roundabout as well as signals. 

The feedback that is generated from the open houses plus whatever comments are emailed by March 3rd will then be evaluated by Morrison Hershfield. Kennedy says there are many other factors to consider, including approval from the province, costs and the impact on residents. A recommendation will then be made to the town. 

According to Dyck, the degree of urgency will be dependent on what developers are looking to do. He notes right now they have a developer who owns the land on one side of PR 311, with agricultural activity on the other side. Dyck says it will be nice to have this study completed in advance in order to proceed with whatever is decided once the timing is right. 

An open house was held Tuesday at the Niverville Community Resource and Recreation Centre (CRRC). A second open house will take place Thursday, also at the CRRC, from 4-7 pm. Following that, the PowerPoint will be posted on the Town of Niverville's website and social media pages. Comments are welcome until March 3rd, to jkennedy@morrisonhershfield.com

Open house Tuesday in Niverville (Golden West)

 

With files from Adi Loewen