The proposed $4.18 million first phase of the realignment of St. Anne Street features a traffic circle, or roundabout, instead of a traditional intersection with traffic lights.
“Basically it came out that the roundabout was going to be not only safer but provide better service so it would get more vehicles through,” said Sue Howard, capital projects manager with the City of St. Albert.
Howard said the consultant hired to do the design, McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd., looked at both a traffic circle and a traffic-light intersection for the proposed project, which would extend St. Anne Street behind the Grandin Medical Clinic and the Cornerstone Hall buildings and have it exit onto Taché Street.
While the original concept from 2010 was to use some of the private land for the road, Howard said they’ve since decided to move the road into the park area so it’s on city property.
“It’s shifting it about seven metres from the original alignment which really worked best for us anyways for the geometry of the intersection and then tying back into TachĂ© Street,” Howard said.
Cornerstone Hall manager Myra Lonsbury said the hall’s tenants were “on top of the world” when they learned of the new alignment. The old plan would have used many of the parking spots for the road area and meant the emergency exit would empty onto a busy road.
“They have assured everyone in that area that nobody will be required to move,” Lonsbury said.
She wasn’t concerned by the loss of space in Millenium Park and supported the idea of a plaza in the park to increase the area’s exposure and more awareness of spaces like Cornerstone Hall.
The vice-president of the 50+ Club said while the original plan would have made life difficult for the club, the new version of the first phase of the alignment shouldn’t affect them, while the second might.
“With the upgrades to the building (planned), that’s going to be a big disruption anyhow,” Gareth Jones said, referring to the planned $2.3 million renovation to the club.
The public will have a chance to look at the proposed plans for the 50+ Club, the St. Anne Street realignment, downtown parking and general downtown redevelopment next week during an open house at the 50+ Club.
Design work for the realignment of St. Anne Street was done this year, with construction planned to begin in 2015.
The city opted for the traffic circle, because analysis done by the consultants suggested that the traffic flow would be better than it would with another set of traffic lights.
In addition to a roundabout, changes addressed in this project will include the removal of the median from St. Thomas Street, the narrowing of St. Anne Street to two lanes west of St. Thomas Street, new right-hand turns and on-street parking on parts of St. Anne Street and on the south side of St. Thomas Street.
The second phase of the project would redesign Taché Street but that project is likely to be completed further into the future.
“They want to make sure they’re getting (downtown redevelopment projects) done in the right order so knowing Phase 2 is going through a parking lot, we wanted to make sure that we had the parking strategy done first, so I would say Phase 2 is actually going to be postponed for quite sometime,” Howard said.
Phase 1 was designed with the big picture of both phases in mind, she said, but won’t be negatively impacted by a delay in Phase 2.
“The first phase of construction works on its own and it works very well with the extension as well,” she said.
This is the first big project going ahead under the 2010 downtown area redevelopment plan (DARP).
While roundabouts are a relatively new concept for St. Albert traffic, Strathcona County has found their neighbourhood roundabouts to be successful.
“Our experience is they work very well,” said Ryan Anders, manager of traffic engineering and safety for the county. “They’re in line with safe systems which is reducing the possibility of severe collision and injuries or fatalities in a traffic crash.”
The roundabouts are attractive, lower maintenance and don’t require energy for traffic lights, Anders said, but they’re also safer for motorists.
“The roundabout reduces the likelihood … of there being a right-angled crash, that T-boned crash, because you’re on an angle pretty much all the way through,” Anders said.
People generally adjust to using the roundabouts pretty quickly, he said. In Strathcona County the biggest concern is whether or not they can be cleared of snow.
“There’s plenty of benefits that we see,” he said.
Statistics reported by Alberta Transportation say roundabouts reduce total crashes by 40 per cent, injuries by 80 per cent and fatalities by 90 per cent.
– with files from Kevin Ma
