{"id":15321,"date":"2016-09-21T22:05:50","date_gmt":"2016-09-22T02:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15321"},"modified":"2016-09-21T22:05:50","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T02:05:50","slug":"kennedy-street-could-be-prioritized-as-speed-cushion-pilot-faces-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/kennedy-street-could-be-prioritized-as-speed-cushion-pilot-faces-delay\/","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy Street could be prioritized as speed cushion pilot faces delay"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Problem areas on Kennedy Street West could be prioritized after a speed cushion pilot program on three area streets hit a roadblock at Council last week.
\nCouncillors voted to defer a final decision on how to proceed with a $100,000 pilot program to install a series of speed cushions to calm traffic on select stretches of Kennedy and Mavrinac Boulevard, and a stretch of McMaster Avenue.
\nStaff recommend Council put the matter on the backburner until the spring to take advantage of \u201ccompetitive pricing\u201d in the New Year after bids for the contract this year came back more than the $100,000 already approved by Council.
\nRather than delaying the program outright, Councillors questioned whether there would be any benefit in splitting this out into three separate projects to ease residents\u2019 concerns.
\n\u201cI am looking at Kennedy Street and I think that is the one that had the most concern and I would hate to see that go another [six or seven] months before anything happened on that one,\u201d said Councillor Tom Mrakas. \u201cI would have no problems moving forward with the Kennedy Street aspect of this instead of the other two and having it go out to tender later on.\u201d
\nAlthough Councillors supported the sentiment, they said more information needs to come forward on costs and timelines before splitting the project in time for their next General Committee meeting this week.
\nEarlier this month, Councillors learned the pilot project for the three streets would could come in more than $41,000 over-budget if they did not go out to tender for a second time this winter.
\n\u201cWe are preparing [the tenders] for February and March,\u201d said Ilmar Simanovskis, Aurora\u2019s Director of Infrastructure. \u201cWe could do it earlier, but we can\u2019t do the work until the roads are basically clear of snow. We wouldn\u2019t start the work until the end of April anyway. Ideally, if we put the tender on the streets in mid-March we would have a pricing available and ready to contract.
\n\u201cOnce you award a tender, there is an expectation the contractor usually starts in the first couple of weeks. If we issue it too early, it could put them in a situation where they are either forced to start during the winter or ask for an extension which could cost us [more]. We\u2019re trying to align the tender period with the construction period and do it in a period of time where we actually get good, valuable tenders.\u201d
\nWhile Council members were not opposed to saving money by delaying the project a few months, some said residents in these areas would be disappointed, questioning what could be done in the meantime to curb speeders in the area.
\n\u201cI think everyone at this table knows some of the residents are going to be pretty unhappy to hear this,\u201d said Councillor Wendy Gaertner, asking the Town ask the York Regional Police to increase ticketing in the selected areas. \u201cAnything we can do to show residents that we\u2019re serious about this.\u201d
\nAlso looking for stop-gap measures was Councillor Michael Thompson, who asked if speed boards, roadside signs warning drivers they are going over the speed limit, could be installed until the speed cushions are ready to be installed.
\n\u201cAt a minimum, if we are going to delay it, we need to do something to address the issue and that at least is a good first step.
\nAnother alternative was offered by Councillor John Abel: street painting to warn drivers that traffic calming is coming while giving them an idea where the measures might be installed. Mr. Simanovskis said that is something to look into and street painting, such as zig-zag lines to confuse drivers, has shown to be effective in making them slow down.
\nRubber speed cushions were also floated around the table by Councillor Harold Kim as a possible more environmentally-friendly alternative. That idea was quickly nixed by Mr. Simanovskis, who said the fact they need to be bolted down into the road causes problems.
\n\u201cIf we\u2019re going to install these devices, the asphalt are the most reliable and longer serving. The rubber ones do damage and the fact we have to remove them in the winter is problematic because it adds wear and tear to the pavement,\u201d he said. \u201cThe path that we\u2019re on is going to get us to a place where we\u2019re actually going to have a speed cushion and a place that is going to be effective and long-term, assuming the community is happy with the outcome, versus a short term win versus long maintenance and longer term cost issue.\u201d
\nCouncil approved temporary speed cushions be installed on Kennedy Street West from McGee Crescent to Murray Drive, Mavrinac Boulevard from Borealis Avenue to Spring Farm, and McMaster Avenue from Hollidge to Hollandview Trail.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Problem areas on Kennedy Street West could be prioritized after a speed cushion pilot program on three area streets hit a roadblock at Council last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3Z7","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 10:21:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}