Traffic calming at Kingston’s Waaban Crossing a work in progress, official says

Kingstonians rejoiced when the Waaban Crossing finally opened last year, but now, regular traffic snarls at the west side of the bridge are a source of frustration.

Cars sat bumper to bumper at the west side intersection of the Waaban Crossing Wednesday afternoon.

While the arrival of the third crossing did alleviate some of the traffic woes at the LaSalle Causeway, it seems the problem now lays at the foot of the new bridge.

That’s not a surprise, according to city planners.

“Since that time, the city has been monitoring traffic patterns here, and we’re trying to assess when it becomes, kind of, normalization,” said City of Kingston project engineer Dan Franco.

This, says Franco, is a necessary inconvenience that will help them determine what adjustments need to be made.

“What we’re doing here, as well, is trying to make some tweaks and adjustments to the signal timings, to try and make the intersection operate a little more efficiently,” he added.

The current situation for commuters in the Montreal Street area is congested to say the least.

Lines of traffic stretch from the bridge as far south as Rideau Street, and Sutherland Drive to the north around rush hour.

Advanced green lights seem to be causing some headaches as well.

Complaints have been made that the light timing isn’t long enough for how long the traffic lines are, and Franco says this is also a work in progress.

“What we’ve done is made some enhancements, such as adding some dedicated advanced green left turn tabs. Like anything, it’s an electronic device that’s plugged into a circuit board and sometimes we’ll have to go out and make some adjustments based on feedback we receive from the residents,” said Franco.

And, like anything, it will take time, before Kingston’s new, shiny piece of infrastructure works better with everything around it, and the wheels of improvement are already in motion.

“The city is in fact carrying out the design of the Montreal – John Counter Boulevard intersection to enhance the operation of the intersection to also include features for active transportation and the Kingston Transit services here,” Franco said.