The City of North Bay is looking for public input on recommended improvements to Lakeshore Drive and Pinewood Park Drive.
Information from the preliminary study, involving 3.7 km of roadway from Ferris Drive to south of Decaire Road, has been posted to the city’s website.
Recommendations include widening Lakeshore to four vehicle lanes and Pinewood Park Drive to five lanes, including a shared middle turning lane.
Reid Porter, Infrastructure Engineer with the City of North Bay, says a roundabout at Lakeshore and Booth Road is the ‘preferred solution’ for that area.
“The city is recommending a roundabout just because it has a higher level of service, it’s safer than a signalized intersection and it will be less expensive to maintain in the future,” he says.
Porter also says there could be cost-savings with the proposed roundabout at the Highway 11 intersection because it will improve cueing issues with left-turning vehicles off of the highway onto Pinewood Park Drive.
“Improving the Ministry of Transportation’s operations with a roundabout provides the city the opportunity to engage with possible cost-sharing with the MTO,” he says.
Signalized pedestrian crossings are also being proposed at two locations on Lakeshore and another on Pinewood Park Drive.
“They are necessary with (Sunset Park) school in the area and the Kate Pace Way and the crossing of Lakeshore Drive, they just make sense. And because on Pinewood Park Drive we don’t have any other crossing other than at Lakeshore Drive and Pinewood and at Decaire,” Porter says.
The location on Pinewood Park Drive will be finalized in the project’s detailed design.
On-road bike lanes are also recommended on Pinewood Park Drive and a stretch of Lakeshore, from the Kate Pace Way to the Highway 11 intersection.
Presentation material on the project can be found on the city’s website at the following link: https://www.northbay.ca/projects/environmental-assessment-study-lakeshore-drive-and-pinewood-park-drive/
Public comments are being accepted until September 28th.
