{"id":4171,"date":"2013-10-09T14:43:29","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T18:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=4171"},"modified":"2013-10-16T16:32:31","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T20:32:31","slug":"pedestrian-crossing-for-seniors-comes-in-over-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/pedestrian-crossing-for-seniors-comes-in-over-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Pedestrian crossing for seniors comes in over budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Safer crossings on an increasingly busy section of John West Way are expected to take one step closer to becoming a reality this week.<\/p>\n

Councillors are set to approve the installation of new pedestrian signals on the heavily traffic collector road at its intersection with Hollandview Trail. The intent is to make things safer for residents of the established townhome area, as well as the two existing condominium and seniors residences, and a third condo building currently under construction. <\/p>\n

Following tentative approval at last week\u2019s General Committee meeting, if the project proceeds as recommended, the pedestrian signals and their installation will clock in at just under $94,700, nearly $21,000 over previously approved funds. <\/p>\n

\u201cResidents in the area have expressed safety concerns in crossing John West Way to access Civic Square Park and shopping areas beyond the park,\u201d said Ilmar Simanovskis, Director of Infrastructure, in a report to Council. \u201cThe traffic signals only control traffic on John West Way and only stop traffic (display a red light) when activated by a pedestrian.\u201d<\/p>\n

Included in the project are two traffic signals with countdown displays, pavement markings, additional street lighting, and audible signals for those who need them. <\/p>\n

Of the more than $21,000 additional funds needed to complete the project, $12,200 is attributed to connecting to a power supply 125 metres from the location, and the balance to building ramps in the sidewalks outside of any previously scheduled sidewalk improvement projects in the area.
\nAlthough Councillors approved the project at the committee level last week, they questioned whether this increase in cost would be necessary since a building on one of the intersection\u2019s four corners is still under construction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not arguing against putting in a signalized intersection, but I do have a question of whether or not it needs to be done now,\u201d said Councillor Evelyn Buck. \u201cThese buildings were all understood to be retirement buildings. John West Way is known as a busy collector and getting busier with all the additional developments. When their site plan was approved, why weren\u2019t the developers required to put in that facility they should have known their residents would need? Why didn\u2019t they give us money for it and have it included in the site plan?\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Councillor Paul Pirri who chaired last week\u2019s meeting, argued that because the funds for this project are coming out of Development Charges that the developers indeed were paying for it. Marco Ramunno, Aurora\u2019s Director of Planning, said nothing of this nature was included as specific conditions in their development plans. <\/p>\n

Mr. Simanovskis added, however, that when the building still under construction was up for approval, a debate was had on whether they should request a signalized intersection, but traffic studies were carried out and they missed the mark to warrant one.
\n\u201cWe didn\u2019t feel we would have a sufficient argument,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Councillor Buck, however, pressed on in her arguments, questioning whether money could be saved by including this in next year\u2019s budget and including sidewalk modifications, as well as whether closer sources of power could be found to cut the cost, such as power from a nearby light poll or tapped into one of the buildings for which this is being built. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a piece of public infrastructure that needs to be provided for through a public infrastructure connection,\u201d said Mr. Simanovskis, noting power from a streetlight would not be enough to do the job. \u201cTo tie it into a private service connection is not appropriate and it is not something I would recommend. It would take us from having control of that power supply and it would also hamper the operation of the intersection because now we would be relying upon a private connection to that power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Council members were in favour of going forward with the larger budget. <\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil decided to put this in because pedestrian traffic is only going to increase in that area,\u201d said Mayor Geoffrey Dawe. \u201cI do support the increase.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor Wendy Gaertner said she agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very sorry it has come in over budget, but we\u2019re talking about safety, which is why we made our original decision. I think tax dollars or DCs that are spent in the name of safety are well spent.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Safer crossings on an increasingly busy section of John West Way are expected to take one step closer to becoming a reality this week.<\/p>\n

Councillors are set to approve the installation of new pedestrian signals on the heavily…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-15h","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-28 01:03:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4171","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=4171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}