Two High Crash Intersections to See Changes
Prince George, B.C. – The intersections of Highway 16 and Cowart Road, and Highway 16 at Ferry will be improved.
Both intersections have seen numerous crashes, just one week ago a 15 year old girl lost her life as the result of a collision.
By early fall, a dedicated left turn traffic signal will be installed at the intersection of Vance and Cowart Roads and Highway 16 , as well as the intersection of Ferry Avenue and Highway 16, west of Highway 97.
Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond had requested the Ministry of Transportation review the two intersections to see what could be done to improve safety at the two sites. “All of us were deeply touched and our hearts broken for the families involved in what happened. It is important to make these changes and work will be underway as soon as the preparatory engineering is done” says MLA Shirley Bond.
She says there will need to be other structures put in place, so it could take several weeks before the work begins.
The $500 thousand dollar project will see installation of separate, protected left-turn signals in the centre median, providing a fully-controlled left-turn access for vehicles, while stopping oncoming traffic.
Shirley Bond says there is also a concern having the turn signal back up traffic on Peden Hill “Analysis has been done, not only will these two intersections see improvements in the short term, there’s also going to be an on going look at how we manage the flow of traffic with the constraints that are along that corridor because of the commercial properties, the cemetery and other things. There are some physical constraints, but obviously I am just relieved we can move these two intersections forward to some short term improvement .”
Design work for improvements to the corridor is expected to start next year.
Comments
Great news! That’s all Peden Hill needs for right now.. As for Traffic being backed up onto the hill for turning? I don’t think that would be anymore of a fiasco than it currently is just increase the time for eastbound traffic to get through.
This is real good news but I really wish this had been done a few years ago. Thanks Shirley, and Scott.
I am not inclined to extend any Thanks because it has taken far too long and has claimed far too many victims during the time when the whole community was aware of the lack of safety.
All that’s needed are changes in the traffic signal timing to allow the heavier flow of traffic to clear the intersection and get rid off the timing system that controls the traffic signals.
Cheers
A few things surprise me here. That it can be done so quickly. That it hadn’t already been done, and that it cost $250,000 per light to install. Seems very high, but compared to the lives lost, it is money well spent
This would suggest they’ve been working on it for a while already.
grizz so what you are saying is that they were just waiting for someone to die before following thru with this project…SICK
Ice, is your imagination or negativity working overtime?
I am suggesting that changes to traffic patterns within government take time, with approvals from the engineers to the Regional Manager, to the ministry in Victoria, then the changes the engineers are requested to make, it’s not something they do on a blueprint and transfer to the crew doing the changes. Then there are the consultations with the City in this case, and other areas, with the RDFFG. Government, unfortunately in this case have so many stop checks in design, input from others, surprising anything gets done, but usually it gets done right.
grizz:
Things CAN happen that quickly when the motivation is there and you get the right people involved. Tragically, it did take a death to wake everybody up!
We all know how dangerous both of these intersections are, yet we as a society did not do enough to prevent this tragedy from happening.
The petition that was started gained instant momentum and that is what should have been done long ago.
But I think we get complacent and it seems that as long as we are not the ones involved, we just pass by yet another accident and think “jeez, when is something going to be done about this dangerous intersection?”
We have to start being more pro-active and address a situation sooner than later.
Most of the accidents at this intersection like the tragic accident last friday are between vehicles turning left from the highway onto Vance and vehicles heading westbound up peden hill. Why no warning light by the husky to alert drivers to be prepared to stop? They have one for vehicles coming down the hill. Trucks and vehicles towing trailers cannot stop on a dime. If there was an early warning this tragedy and any others might have been avoided
Pretty simple actually. Stand by an intersection that has a “Prepare To Stop When Flashing” sign and count the number of people that speed up when they start flashing. It would be less time consuming to count the people who actually start slowing down; you wouldn’t need more then 1 hand for them.
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