By Cecilia Nasmith
In preparation for an eventual six-lane Highway 401, the Ministry of Transportation is looking at improvements to the stretch of road between Colborne and Brighton – as presented to Northumberland County council's Public Works Standing Committee this week.
Senior Project Engineer Muhammad Waseem told the committee that the three bridges on a stretch of highway that stretches from just east of Percy Street to the western county boundary were built in the late 1950s. Not only are they nearing the end of their useful life, Waseem said – they are insufficient for that future time when the highway will be six lanes wide.
They need to be replaced, and the report presented offered options for all three, along with impacts and provisions for the diversion of traffic during the bridge-replacement process.
WSP Consultant Project Manager Brent Gotts said the work will also include work on the carpool lot at the County Road 30 interchange and four structural culvert replacements between Lake Road and County Road 30.
Gotts noted that those stretches of Highway 401 with a closed median can only be expanded outward, while those with an open median (typically a 30-metre grassed piece of land) have some flexibility to allow for at least partial inward expansion, depending on the topography.
But much of the presentation focused on the three bridges.
For the Herley Road and Lake Road bridges, the same three options were identified – replace it slightly to the east, replace it slightly to the west or replace it in its existing alignment. With all the considerations of property impacts, traffic impacts and cost factored in, the recommended option at this time seems to favour the third option.
In both cases, the configuration of Highway 401 in these areas is not conducive to traffic-control measures on the highway while the existing bridges are demolished, and a detour must be set up. The detour route would be south on Percy Street down to County Road 2, then north up County Road 30 – or vice-versa. This detour would be undertaken at an off-peak time of year during off-peak hours, with police-assisted traffic control.
The third bridge is the one at the Brighton exit on County Road 30. An amazing number of options have been identified, many involving a realignment of both the county road and nearby Telephone Road that parallels the 401 to the south. The one that would probably be recommended involves rebuilding the bridge on its existing alignment in half-and-half stages that would see traffic controlled by a signal.
This bridge should be rebuilt to handle speeds of 100 km. an hour, Gott added. Though it is currently posted at 80, it was designed with speeds of 50 km/hr. in mind.
Gott said that property owners who stand to be impacted by this work will be notified. And the nature of the impacts will become clearer as options are narrowed and refined.
Next steps include an April 21 Public Information Centre (held virtually in compliance with current provincial COVID-19 restrictions). Alternatives will be presented and, based on public and agency input, plans will be refined accordingly and meetings with affected property owners will begin.
A preferred plan will be presented at a Public Information Centre in the fall. And the project has a dedicated website where progress can be followed.
“I would just ask that you consider wildlife passing through, particularly in that culvert area just east of Lake Road – I think it's quite important to factor that in,” Cramahe Township Mayor Mandy Martin requested.
Both Martin and Brighton Township Mayor Brian Ostrander declined to name a preference among the bridge options, preferring to wait for the Public Information Centres and public input
They did express confidence in the process, and Martin added that the ministry was very diligent not only in its work but in its consultation measures.
