Newmarket residents had a chance to learn more about the town’s plans to reconstruct Lorne Avenue at a Feb. 27 public information session held at the Municipal Office. The public viewed various engineering drawings that showed the proposed new Lorne Avenue block by block from Davis to Millard.
Newmarket resident Nancy Fish said she is encouraged by the traffic calming initiatives being undertaken by the town. Resident Rex Taylor said he admires the creative effort with respect to the traffic calming features.
Here’s what NewmarketToday gleaned from the representatives on hand last night:
- As a long north-south roadway, the reconstruction of Lorne Avenue will be broken up into two phases. Phase 1 begins in summer 2020 and will see Lorne Avenue reconstructed from Davis Drive to Millard Avenue. Phase 2 will roll out in summer 2021 with the remaining work happening on Lorne Avenue from Millard Avenue to Eagle Street.
- Newmarket’s engineering services director Rachel Prudhomme said the time has come to replace the aging infrastructure on Lorne Avenue. The water mains and sewers will be replaced, and sidewalks will be installed on the west side of the road where there are none now. Also, low impact bioswales will replace some of the catch basins. Benches will also be installed.
- Newmarket council sees the reconstruction of Lorne Avenue as an opportunity to address residents' traffic concerns and the road will be a pilot project to evaluate the effectiveness of various traffic calming measures. The volume and speed of cars, trucks, and bicycle traffic will be monitored. The results will be used in future road designs.
- Terry Hoehn from consulting engineers firm, Ainsley Group, said that from Davis Drive to Calgain Road, there will be no change on Lorne. But south of Calgain, the road will be narrowed from its current 13m to the standard 9.5m. This will make room for the new sidewalk and some parking. The Queen Street intersection features a four-way stop, will be raised, and coloured salmon. The curb corners will also be brought out to a tighter radii to prevent right-turning cars from cutting around a stopped car going straight through the intersection. The Millard Avenue intersection will not be raised until Phase 2, and there will be bike lanes from Davis to Millard.
