A turning lane and sidewalk have been added to plans that address pedestrian and traffic safety at Black Diamond’s busiest intersection.
In addition to traffic lights being installed this fall at Black Diamond’s four-way stop, which sees an average of 10,000 vehicles daily, Town council agreed at its Aug. 3 meeting to pay Alberta Transportation approximately $47,000 from its Basic Municipal Transportation grant to construct a sidewalk on the north side of Highway 7 for three-quarters of a block west of the intersection towards Okotoks.
Alberta Transportation also plans to widen Highway 7 by a metre to the north, council learned, to allow for a left-turning lane to direct traffic south to Highway 22.
Work is expected to take place this fall.
“There’s an opportunity for the town to piggyback on this project and get a sidewalk constructed at the same time they’re constructing the curb,” Rod Ross, Black Diamond planning and development officer, explained to council.
“The Town will have to pay for the additional cost, but won’t have to pay mobilization fees, permit fees, traffic accommodation, design costs or project management costs so there’s an opportunity to save a bit of money and get a sidewalk that is needed.”
Although Ross is unsure how much the project would have cost if the Town pursued it on its own, he expects it would have been thousands of dollars more.
He said it wasn’t a capital project planned for this year, yet there had been public requests to build a sidewalk there for several years.
“Putting a sidewalk there meets a number of objectives in the town and we can save some money doing it with Alberta Transportation at this time,” he said.
Ross said the sidewalk, which will measure 1.8 metres wide by 120 metres long and will include a wheelchair-accessible ramp, will connect with a bus stop that will be in place this fall for the On-It Transit pilot project the Town is participating in. The bus stop will be located just west of the Black Diamond Gallery.
Gallery owner Rusty Davidson said he’s glad the Town approved the sidewalk for safety reasons.
Alberta Transportation will also paint a crosswalk on Highway 7 on the east side of the 1st Street intersection, also west of Davidson’s business.
“I think a sidewalk and crosswalk is going to be great for the public and there won’t be people jaywalking across the highway,” he said. “It’s better for public access instead of crossing in the middle of the street. It’s going to make everything a lot safer.”
When it comes time to installing the traffic lights, Alberta Transportation will extend the curbs to allow adequate room for the poles and eliminate the ability for traffic to create separate right turning lanes, said Ross.
“Right now there is two unofficial lanes and vehicles are making right hand turns where they shouldn’t be,” he said.
Ross said it’s not unusual for smaller vehicles to attempt to turn right at the four-way stop beside a large truck or semi-trailer turning in the same direction but giving the curb a wide berth.
Data provided by Alberta Transportation shows six collisions causing property damage and one minor collision occurred at the intersection from 2008 to 2012.
At last week’s meeting, Black Diamond town council also approved spending approximately $13,000 out of its reserve fund to apply a powder coat of paint to the traffic light poles to make them black rather than the standard grey, said Ross.
“In the coming years the town plans to do an area redevelopment plan for the downtown and that plan would be looking at streetscape improvements such as light standards and street furniture and sidewalk improvements,” he said. “We wanted to seize the opportunity to have these traffic light standards match the direction we think we would be going with that new plan in downtown.”
