A decade-long, $63-million project to widen John Counter Boulevard is entering its final phase, but pedestrians will have to deal with a missing link.
The City of Kingston is expected to award a contract this summer to begin construction of a bridge over the main CN tracks near the Via Rail train station. However, officials say the bridge deck will not be wide enough to accommodate a sidewalk on both sides.
Officials admit the decision is not in keeping with the city council’s current policy to promote active transportation but say the alternative is a costly delay.
They say the missing sidewalk reflects a 10-year lag time between bridge design plans and evolving municipal priorities.
City transportation officials say a 2006 environmental study for the overpass deck included room for four lanes of traffic, plus on-road bicycle lanes and sidewalks on both sides.
However, the bridge was narrowed and the south sidewalk was removed following a 2009 risk analysis that shaved $1 million from the overall project cost.
“This change maintained the on-road cycling lanes and the north side sidewalk, however the south side sidewalk was removed,” according to a June 4 staff report to council.
Ten years later, city politicians have placed a much greater emphasis on active transportation, reducing sidewalk gaps and eliminating barriers to active trips.
Staff say adhering to recent policy changes would have a costly impact as they would have to reconfigure the railway overpass to include sidewalks on both sides.
“If the design was determined to be feasible, it is estimated to increase the capital cost by approximately $3.5 million and introduce a delay of approximately 30 months.”
The extra cost and construction timeline to expand the overpass deck would require a redesign of the bridge support and structure, additional mitigation of environmentally sensitive lands, floodplain mitigation and renegotiation of the agreement between the city and CN Rail, staff explained.
In a bid to soften the blow on pedestrians and politicians, staff has changed the sidewalk plans yet again to try and capture some of council’s new directives.
The bridge will still have just one sidewalk, but it will now be located on the south side of the overpass to make it more accommodating to pedestrians. City officials say the new sidewalk plan allows direct connectivity for pedestrians between Princess Street and the Via Rail station from the west and Portsmouth Avenue from the east.
They add that a south-side sidewalk connects to the existing and planned multi-use path network on Portsmouth Avenue, Leroy Grant Drive and the Third Crossing without pedestrians having to cross John Counter Boulevard. It also provides a consistent, buffered cycling facility on both sides of John Counter Boulevard that is planned to extend from Collins Bay Road to the Third Crossing.
If the narrowed bridge proceeds as planned, pedestrians would have to cross to the south side of John Counter Boulevard to walk across the bridge using future traffic lights at Portsmouth Avenue and Old Mill Road.
John Counter Boulevard is a key transportation corridor that handles thousands of commuters every day and will eventually connect to the city’s $180-million Third Bridge crossing over the Cataraqui River.
Work to widen John Counter Boulevard’s east-west route from Division Street to Princess Street began in 2012. The fifth and final phase is the most complex: building a bridge over the CN tracks and finishing the road widening on Princess Street near the Via Rail train station. The work is slated to last from 2019 to 2021.
Staff are now reviewing competitive bid proposals submitted by five companies to complete the final phase. The companies are Coco Paving Inc., Dagmar Construction Inc., Gordon Barr Ltd., R.W. Tomlinson Ltd. and Toronto Zenith.
Staff say they have short-listed the bidders and should be ready to award the railway overpass contract to start construction sometime between July and September.
Coincidentally, it’s not the only big bridge project slated to start construction in Kingston this summer.
A much bigger project to start the in-water construction of the Third Crossing is also expected to begin soon. The 1.2-kilometre crossing will link John Counter Boulevard in the west with Gore Road in the east.