I thought I would like to comment on this project and its good and bad points.
I took the time to do a little checking on traffic road width , etc. and found that, at the present time, this stretch of road does not comply with federal or provincial dimension guidelines for maximum width vehicular traffic.
Maximum width vehicles of eight feet, six inches are allowed on all roads in North America except inner New York and New Jersey where eight feet is maximum allowable. Municipalities are allowed to use their own roadway and street widths guidelines within the boundaries but must use posted signage indicating the restrictions of over width vehicles from reduced width of road allowance provided. In all cases, the two-foot rule should be applied.
In the case of this new stretch of road , the maximum width of indicated vehicular traffic boundaries is 11 feet and is 10 feet, seven inches at the pump house going north. A bicycle path adjacent to the right curb measures 68 inches and is fairly constant on both sides for north and south bound traffic. Provincial guidelines for maximum width vehicular traffic is: and I quote: “One lane must have a width of 12 feet to accommodate maximum width traffic in each direction. On main high volume highways and secondary roads, etc., bicycle lanes are allowed where traffic is 60 kilometres or lower and they must have a minimum width of 1.2 meters with traffic lanes being 12 feet or more for all traffic (not just maximum width vehicles.) Any reduction in traffic lane widths from the 12 foot width within municipalities must have a no post guardrail separating bike path and vehicular traffic.”
The “boulder piles” in the centre bordered by a cement curb, measure 13 feet in width, more than adequate for parking or turning. The indicated roadway for vehicular traffic north of this new stretch of road complies in every way to provincial standards for maximum width traffic – 12-foot indicated allowance for vehicular traffic with a minimum of three feet shoulder .
With the present indicated vehicular traffic boundaries, all buses, both transit and school, transport trucks, motor homes, delivery cube vans, dump trucks, fire trucks, ambulances, dual wheel pickups, and others of maximum width are in theory in violation of traveling a roadway that should be posted to restrict these vehicles from this stretch of road, except in an emergency. However the city is remiss in that they have not posted this restriction or they have not modified boundaries to accept maximum width vehicles .
In the case of making this stretch of road comply , a reduction of one foot, two inches in bike lane path will give a vehicular road width of 12 feet except for the section adjacent and 140 feet south of pump house where a reduction of the width of the “boulder pile in the middle of the road on, two 2 inches would be necessary to bring this into compliance. In order to retain the present width of bike path (recommended) the island widths would have to be reduced.
Now we come to the “whys.” All coastal cities, towns and villages in British Columbia and across the line are folding into their road and street planning, ways of meeting emergency evacuation and egress from danger areas in case of coastal emergencies such as tsunamis, earthquakes, etc. The criteria being of establishing evacuation routes and minimizing or removing obstructions and widening roadways to accommodate overload of vehicles and provide access for emergency vehicles . So why did our engineering department not take this into consideration when building this section of road?
At present, the large island of boulders serve no purpose and restrict the flow of traffic and prevent emergency vehicles from making a timely response in an emergency situation, especially the continuous stretch of boulders from south of the pump house and up to the pump house. Eliminating this “pile of boulders” would alleviate any dimensional shortcomings and bring this section into compliance with minimum provincial guidelines.
Another area of “surprise” was the widening of the area some time ago in front of RONA’S. Everybody that I talked to at the time this was done believed we were going to see a turning lane in front of RONA’S.
But true to the state of planning in our engineering department, citizen shock treatment was in store for us. An additional area of parking was marked out on sunny morning and this adjacent to the large parking area at Ken Forde boat ramp and the lift station. This area is a very dangerous situation for entering and exiting this business, especially on Saturdays. This should have been addressed. A simple cure for this could be very easily taken care of with about eight hours of road marking.
I have written this letter to provide a few options for our City Hall to ponder so they can make this project right and not have to revisit it at a later date. Better to make it right now, make everybody happy and show that public safety is forefront in their planning , implementation and completion of city projects.
And last but not least , listen to the citizens and our first line responders.
As this letter will become public knowledge for all public officials in our community, it is not necessary for me to send registered letters to all council members or the mayor.
Walter Hall
Campbell River