St. Marys commits to improving traffic safety at dangerous intersection

Public complaints and a number of dangerous collisions in recent years have prompted the Town of St. Marys to commit to improving traffic safety at one of its more notorious intersections.

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Jed Kelly, director of public works, said the intersection of Church Street South and Jones Street East, just one block south of St. Marys’ main downtown strip, is consistently ranked as one of the town’s top 10 intersections for crashes, averaging about one collision every four months. According to Stratford police, the majority of those collisions are the result of drivers failing to yield. Despite the frequency of crashes there, only one of the 10 crashes reported in the past three years resulted in any injuries.

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Issues with that intersection, a St. Marys staff report noted, include sightlines in all directions not complying with the town’s zoning bylaw because of large trees, a private hedge and on-street parking obstructing the view of drivers, a lack of advance-warning signage for drivers, a lack of crosswalk and stop-bar pavement markings, and the combination of a stop sign on Jones Street East for westbound traffic and a yield sign for vehicles traveling east.

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“That intersection was raised by the public and then brought to council over concerns about the recent frequency of motor-vehicle accidents,” Kelly said. “That went to the community policing advisory committee and we did an intersection review at the staff level, and the intersection is considered existing non-conforming from a modern design standard for road engineering. So we evaluated all the conditions that affect that intersection and we focused on driver awareness and visibility.

“The committee provided council with a list of options to improve the intersection without engaging traffic engineering for a geometric review or traffic study.”

Following council’s approval earlier this month, town staff and contractors began implementing those recommendations this week. Those steps included replacing the yield sign on Jones Street East with a stop sign, the trimming or removal of three trees, a hedge on private property and other vegetation to improve sightlines, the removal of three street parking spaces and the addition of hidden intersection signs on Church Street South.

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Though Kelly said council and staff didn’t like the necessity of removing the three trees that infringed on the intersection’s sightline – two of which were rather large – the town’s forestry management policy dictates that each tree taken down as part of these improvements will be replaced by three new trees elsewhere in town. One of those trees, Kelly said, at the intersection’s southeast corner had rot at its 12-inch mark and likely would have needed to come down anyway.

“It’s kind of a difficult situation,” he said. “Obviously nobody likes to remove trees, but the forestry management plan in town has a three-to-one replacement ratio. Obviously it won’t be at the same location, but we will look at the canopy as a whole (to determine where those new trees will be planted).”

Once these improvements are complete, likely by the end of next week, Kelly said public works staff will continue to monitor collision data at the intersection over the next two years to determine if traffic safety has improved. Should additional improvements be required, like the installation of new stop signs on Church Street South – a collector road – as previously requested by residents, Kelly said the town would need to conduct a scope traffic study to determine how those changes would affect traffic patterns elsewhere in town.

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