CORNWALL – While Highway 138 improvements are being proposed, a number of Cornwall councillors are concerned about the lax timeline.
Gregg Cooke, consultant with Stantec, told council Monday night, the timeline for priority work is “less than ten years.” Also presenting with Cooke was Peter Freure, MTO Senior Project Engineer for the Ministry of Transportation.
Right now there’s no provincial money on the table to make improvements to Highway 138.
The proposed plan includes intersection improvements at nine locations, two carpool lots (one at Cornwall Centre Road and Highway 138, the other one kilometer north of St. Andrews) and a new roundabout at Headline Road.
There are also plans for passing lanes in two sections of the highway – a southbound passing lane in North Stormont and a northbound lane in South Stormont. They are not planned until 10 to 20 years from now.
There are also 29 private property entrance closures proposed under the plan. To put it in perspective, there’s over 400 entrances on the highway at this point, Cooke explained. “There’s been a little bit of creep as far as entrances…that are non-confirming.”
“Anything is an improvement to what it is now,” Coun. Andre Rivette. “Ten years down the road is a long time. Let’s hope we can get it done as soon as possible.”
Coun. Bernadette Clement asked the MTO representative what priority Highway 138 will be given and what highways in Ontario, SD&G is competing for in terms of dollars.
“All of them…all of our needs are provincially based,” Freure said.
Clement asked how well the first public meeting was attended. Cooke said roughly 170 people came out to the meeting and were “supportive” and was “well attended” in terms of provincial public meetings.
The second Public Information Centre (PIC) will be held Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016 at the Cornwall Township Lions Club on McPhail Road in South Stormont from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m.