SCARBOROUGH MIRROR | Thursday, October 24, 2013 |
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the mirror takes a closer look at sheppard underpass traffic concerns
our exclusive look
File photo/metroland media toronto
The railway underpass and retaining wall on Sheppard Avenue east of Kennedy Road has caused problems for St. Timothy’s Anglican Church. Scarborough Community Council recently approved a temporary traffic light for the church to help those attending deal with what has become an unsafe turn.
Traffic light approved for St. Timothy’s Church Hazard ‘that the city introduced’ must be corrected: Councillor Chin Lee MIKE ADLER madler@insidetoronto.com
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carborough councillors say the City of Toronto should pay for new traffic signals - and for removing those signals a few years later - because a flawed GO Train overpass creates dangerous conditions at a Sheppard Avenue intersection. “It’s a hazard that we introduced, that the city introduced. We need to correct this,” Chin Lee, who represents the area around Lamont Avenue and Sheppard, told Scarborough Community Council at its meeting last Thursday. Lamont is a dead-end street east of a $30-million
GO Train overpass completed on Sheppard last year. After the work finished, worshippers and others going to St. Timothy’s Anglican Church and its two halls by the intersection complained the overpass’s pedestrian railings and raised sidewalk blocked the view of drivers turning out of Lamont. Community councillors responded by banning left turns and through movements across Sheppard at the intersection, but also ordered a traffic study to test arguments the signals are needed. City staff in spring did $15,000 worth of studies on days when the church buildings hosted services
or social events, but their measurements - traffic volume, delay to cross traffic and recorded collisions - show signals weren’t justified. U-turn It’s the city’s position drivers turning right from Lamont can edge out into a lay-by lane for buses to merge with eastbound traffic, and should be able to perform a U-turn at Midland Avenue to go west on Sheppard. “We are not putting people at undo risk here,” said Marko Oinenen, Scarborough traffic operations manager, adding the TTC and provincial Metrolinx transit agency
don’t want signals at the intersection because that will slow down the planned Sheppard East light-rail line. Rev. John Stephenson of St. Timothy’s Anglican, however, said the intersection is unsafe, and every driver and pedestrian who goes there knows it. Years of construction damaged the century-old church building and its parking lot – for which St. Timothy has hired lawyers – before the overpass design was seen to block sight lines for drivers and pedestrians. The city’s “deeply flawed” traffic study doesn’t deal with the safety problems, while Metrolinx has washed its hands of the matter,
Stephenson said. “They built the underpass to the specifications they were given, so it’s not their problem.” Church members described close calls at the intersection and predicted serious accidents without the signals. “As a woman of faith, I pray daily no one is hurt or killed,” said a statement by Sheila Martin read at the meeting. Oinenen said the set of signals would cost at least $150,000, and the delayed LRT project, scheduled to start “in 2017 or so,” would require them to be removed at a cost of perhaps $75,000, perhaps to install a different quarter-signal which only faces eastbound traffic.
Scarborough councillors, however, saw no alternative after Oinenen said the bridge railings could not be changed, and the danger couldn’t be fixed by adding mirrors at the corner or a traffic island in what is now a hazard lane on Sheppard east of the overpass. Some councillors said they have tried themselves to turn out of Lamont and agree there is a danger. “Frankly, I found that scary,” Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly added. Lee’s motion for “interim” signals passed unopposed, but must still be confirmed at Toronto Council next month.
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