Dropping speed limits, painting lines, and installing flexible bollards on the road are among changes staff are proposing to city council to help improve safety around a south Sarnia park.
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More people are using Tecumseh Park after more than $2 million in recent upgrades, including a new skate park, splash pad and playground equipment. Security, accessibility, pathway, drainage and the pool deck also have been improved, development and transportation manager Alister Brown said.
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And more people have been calling the city with safety concerns, he added.
“There’s been a large investment in Tecumseh Park and you really want people to be able to approach that space and be safe,” he said.
There’s already a 40 km/h speed limit zone on Russell Street around PE McGibbon elementary school, he said.
City staff proposes extending that zone, which ends at Ontario Street, all the way to Confederation Street, past Tecumseh Park’s southern border, he said. Palmerston Street South between Confederation and Ontario streets also would drop to 40 km/h under the proposal.
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Staff also recommend painted shoulders on roads, painted pedestrian crossings and flexible bollards on the road, like those installed near Kenwick Park in Bright’s Grove, Brown said, where council nearly three years ago dropped the speed limit on Old Lakeshore Road at 30 km/h.
Speed limits around Tecumseh Park are currently 50 km/h.
Collectively, the proposed measures are designed to make drivers pay attention and slow down, Brown said.
“It’s a combined-effort approach of small, but effective, changes that can. . . make a significant difference in traffic calming,” he said.
Council will consider the proposal, which Brown estimates would cost about $1,100, on Monday. The city has funds for in its approved budget, he said.
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Staff also are asking council to hire a consultant to study a small section of Devine Street, north of the park, that’s been unusually collision-prone, Brown said.
“(We) did see a fairly high rate of incidence there relative to the traffic volume,” he said, after concerns came in primarily about the stop-sign-controlled Devine and Russell streets intersection. There have been eight crashes there since 2018, a city report says.
There have been seven in the same period where Ontario Street crosses Devine at a 45-degree angle nearby. That intersection, too, is controlled by stop signs.
Preliminary investigation by staff found relatively little speeding, Brown’s report shows.
The study would look into what’s behind those relatively high collision rates “and what we can do to potentially address it,” Brown said.
Work at the park is also continuing. HAS separate report coming to council recommends awarding Titan Group Construction Inc. an $860,000 contract to redevelop the park’s well-used ball diamond.
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