South Simcoe truck bypass study results expected next month
Posted February
20, 2013
A status report on Simcoe County's ongoing engineering projects
anticipates the Tottenham bypass study will have its recommendations
ready in March.
The $200,000 study, awarded last spring to CC Tatham and Associates, is
actually broader than just trying to redirect truck traffic away from
the Tottenham core. Its scope is "to identify current and future
transportation needs in South Simcoe. The study will include an
inventory and assessment of existing conditions on study area roads (map
included below), an assessment of future operations based on
traffic forecasts, identification of current and future road system
needs, and development of alternative solutions to address these
needs," according to the notice of study commencement which was posted
in May 2012.
The Master Plan process as set out in the Municipal Class Environmental
Assessment (EA) was to address the following:
the existing traffic operations and conditions in the study
area;
safety issues including a collision review, a review of
roadway geometrics, and an assessment of speed limits;
an examination of transportation issues on the major
roadways including those through the communities of Tottenham and Bond
Head;
identification of current and future needs for the
transportation system in the study area;
generation of alternative solutions to address the needs
identified; and
public and agency consultation and participation.
A truck by-pass has been on the County's to-do list since 2008, marked
to be done within a 10 year time-frame. There's an urgency due to
ongoing safety concerns for pedestrian, property and vehicular traffic
movement at the intersection of Mill and Queen Street in Tottenham,
which sees dozens of transport truck movements daily to and from the
Industrial Road plants.
Last summer, New Tecumseth installed bollards on the northwest corner,
and moved stopping lines back to permit trucks a wider right turning
radius. The bollards have been struck several times since then.
