Plessis Road is set to close Sunday morning but the fight to keep the busy stretch of roadway open isn’t over.
Construction on a $77 million dollar underpass will begin next month but some residents want the city to build a temporary road during construction.
For a year and a half, some 16,000 vehicles will need to find an alternate route and residents worry it’ll be through their residential neighbourhood.
“I think it will be quiet the turmoil because with Plessis closing it’s definitely going to increase the traffic,” said one resident on Bournais Drive just off Dugald.
Bernie Wolf Community School is on Bournais Drive and parents are worried when children return to class in September.
“My daughter is a crossing guard next year and i’m a little bit worried it’ll be a lot busier here for sure.”
NDP MLA Jim Maloway says hundreds of residents have signed an online petition.
Residents met at the crossing Friday to protest the closure.
But the city says building a temporary road would delay the project and put at risk Federal money.
For now, the Mayor and Premier have said the project will move forward as planned.
And while it’ll be inconvenient for motorist, Brent Mastervick will take the brunt of it.
Mastervick and his wife have to move. He and his two neighbours houses were bought out by the city and Friday he held a yard sale, trying to get rid of everything from furniture to a camper.
“I do not want to move,” said Mastervick tearing up, “my wife and I put a lot into this house, we did.”
The city says it is monitoring traffic counts on streets like Bournais Drive to see if traffic will drastically increase once Plessis is closed.
Comments