Highway 12 open house on potential roundabout in Ste Anne

Another open house on how the intersection of Highway 12 and Provincial Road 210 will change is being held Feb. 6 in Ste Anne at Club Jovial from 6-8 p.m, and this time it will include a recommendation to partially close the median at Provincial Road 210.

Left turns would only be allowed off Highway 12 onto Provincial Road 210. Crossing the highway on 210 and left turns onto 12 would no longer be allowed.

New acceleration and right turn lanes on 210 would be added.

“The two primary goals and everything flows from these is trying to improve traffic safety at the intersection, and at the same time accommodate the long-term traffic growth and traffic demand that we anticipate at this intersection,” explained Brad Cook to the RM of Ste Anne council during their meeting on Jan. 29.

Cook, with engineering consultant AECOM hired by the province’s department of Transportation and Infrastructure, told council this is the third phase of public engagement. An open house last summer showed intersection options, focusing on four choices. Three involved different versions of partial or full median closure. The other was a roundabout.

AECOM’s Fernando Velarde told RM council traffic lights were brought up a number of times during public engagement, but they are not a preferred alternative as the consultant said they would be expected to only increase collisions by more than four times, and double the number of crashes with injuries or fatalities.

AECOM’s final report is due this spring.