Item - 2014.PW31.10

The Public Works and Infrastructure Committee recommends that:

1.         City Council authorize the General Manager, Transportation Services, to issue a Notice of Completion and to file the Addendum to the Port Union Road Environmental Assessment Study (2004) in the public record for a minimum 30 days in accordance with the requirements of the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment.

An Environmental Assessment study for Port Union Road was undertaken in 2002–2004 and endorsed by City Council, with the Ministry of Environment-mandated public review completed in 2004. The preferred design solution, intended to address traffic delays particularly in the northbound direction, was to be implemented in two phases: the first consisted of intersection modifications to Kingston Road and Port Union Road, while the second was a widening of the road from Lawrence Avenue to Island Road, to be carried out in the future following an additional round of public consultation.  The first phase of the work was carried out in 2005, with the intersection improvements at Kingston Road. The second phase of the works (widening), currently scheduled for 2019 and included in the Ten Year Capital Program, is being advanced to a 2016 construction date.

The Addendum to the 2004 Environmental Assessment has included an updated traffic analysis, an additional public meeting, and modifications to the EA preferred design to reflect current conditions and minimize impacts to property and the community where possible. The revised preferred design adds a second northbound traffic lane as previously recommended, and in total consists of the following principal elements:

-           Two northbound and two southbound travel lanes on Port Union Road from Lawrence Avenue East to Island Road;

-           Continuous on-road bicycle lanes in both directions;

-           Continuous sidewalks on both sides (current gaps filled in);

-           A continuous two-way centre left-turn lane north of Josaly Drive;

-           A planted median, similar to what exists south of Lawrence Avenue, in the block north of Lawrence Avenue; and

-           Left-turn lanes added to the Winter Gardens Trail and Conference Boulevard intersections.

The total construction cost is estimated to be approximately $3.8 million, an increase of $1.9 million from what had been allocated in Transportation Services' Capital Works Program following the first-phase intersection improvements made available by the reallocation of funds from other identified projects in the current Capital Works Program.