Concrete barriers set up in the Belgravia neighbourhood as part of a pilot project meant to calm traffic have been removed by the City of Edmonton.
City crews could be seen taking down the barriers in the area of 116 Street and 77 Avenue Saturday morning, to the delight of many area residents.
“It’s wonderful,” said David Wishart, who has lived in the neighbourhood for 22 years and had his front door access blocked by the barriers.
“I think we feel we’ve got our community back. We have, this quiet little place is quiet again and now we can park, we can talk to our neighbours, we can have visitors over, we can offload our luggage and our groceries and life is much better now.”
“I’m very pleased. I have to admit, I’m very, very pleased about how it is going and a little bit surprised,” added fellow Belgravia resident Bill Brady.
“I’m glad that our people down at city hall and the engineers have actually listened.”
The barriers were set up earlier this month as part of a pilot project to evaluate how the area could be affected if the boulevards were expanded. The city said the idea is that a narrower road will slow down traffic and make the streets safer.
Many area residents, however, were not on board with the pilot project, saying parking and accessibility were lost.
“I have people who come to visit who aren’t that able-bodied and they should be able to be dropped off in front of my house and have a reasonable expectation that they can get to the sidewalk without having to lift their leg to get over a barricade,” area resident Debby Waldman told Global News Thursday.
“We have not had an accident here, at least for my 34 years here and as other people have said, over 40 years. There’s been no accidents,” Brady said. “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
Watch below: Some Belgravia residents are scratching their heads over a move by the city to fix a problem they say doesn’t exist. Vinesh Pratap has more on why some temporary concrete barriers are leaving some people frustrated.
The city acknowledged the project wasn’t popular and held a meeting with residents earlier this week where the decision was made to take down the concrete barricades.
“We had rolled out some of the ideas on paper but sometimes you have to see it, and for people to see it, to truly understand,” area councillor Ben Henderson said Saturday.
“I actually don’t regret, in some ways, the way we did it because we found out very quickly what wasn’t going to work about the idea that we might have done. In previous years we would have worked it all out on paper, it would have been poured in concrete and it would have been very hard to go back.”
READ MORE: Residents upset over barricades in Belgravia
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Henderson said the meeting with affected residents was very positive and successful, as he was able to hear their concerns and work towards a better solution that will work for everyone.
“In the end it’s a good news story,” he said. “I think it created a lot of grief last week but we’ll go back now and work with the community and the neighbourhood to try and find other solutions.”
Area residents were also very pleased with the outcome, commending Henderson and the City of Edmonton for listening to their concerns.
“They tried something, it didn’t really work and now they’re going to go back to the drawing board and find out how things could work and that’s all you can ask from them,” Brady said.
“It was a case where we spoke, the media amplified our voices, our councillors heard us and I think a better resolution was achieved,” Wishart said.
Belgravia is due for new streets and sidewalks in 2017 and 2018. The temporary barriers were initially meant to stay in place until April.
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