Scrap the $250-million road project at Marion and Archibald: Allard
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/10/2015 (3862 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
St. Boniface Coun. Matt Allard wants city hall to scrap its ambitious plans for a massive interchange and underpass at Marion and Archibald streets and start over with a search for a solution to the problematic intersection that is hobbled by frequent train crossings.
Allard said the city can’t afford the $250-million project, which will involve the destruction of two neighbourhoods with the expropriation and demolition of more than 140 properties, including a Sikh temple and a neighbourhood park. The project’s final price tag will likely double.
“We need something that is viable for the area, appropriate in scale and something the city can afford,” Allard said.
The Marion project was originally envisioned as a straight-forward $70-million underpass or overpass at Marion and Archibald to eliminate traffic back-ups from the CPR Emerson train crossings.
But following a public consultation process, it’s now morphed into what appears to be the largest intersection west of Toronto: the realigning and widening of Marion from Youville Street to Dawson Road; a massive cloverleaf interchange at Marion and Archibald; a rail line underpass; cutting off westbound Marion at Dawson and realigning traffic onto Panet Road and Dugald Road.
“I don’t know what happened to this project,” Allard said. “We have to start over from scratch.”
Allard said he had supported the project earlier in the year. Since then, he’s seen strong opposition from the community and said the net benefits are unclear.
In addition to the cost of the expropriating 140 properties, Allard said city officials have not provided him with estimates on the loss of property tax revenue from homes and businesses that will be eliminated as a result of the project.
The evolution of the project has alarmed area residents, who believe it’s unnecessarily large and will destroy the character of the area with the demolition of so many businesses and homes.
Walter Kleinschmit, past president of the Old St. Boniface Residents Association, said the community had envisioned an overpass as the solution to the train crossing, similar to the one at Nairn Avenue and Archibald.
Kleinschmit said traffic counts at Marion and Archibald are comparable to those at Nairn and Archibald, and added the current proposal is “overkill.”
Consultants hired by the city said the new design reflects feedback from community consultations and meets the goals of improving traffic flow by eliminating the rail lines as a barrier and the traffic lights, with the cloverleaf interchange. In addition, the consultants cited linking Marion directly to Dugald, via Panet, as a benefit to traffic flow and said the new design will include pedestrian and cycling paths along the revamped corridor.
The price tag and scope of the design was one of the reasons council opted to lower the priority of the Marion project on its list of infrastructure needs requesting federal funding, dropping behind the Waverley underpass project.
Allard said he recognizes that with the apparent resolution of the Kapyong Barracks property dispute between Ottawa and the local First Nations, the Marion project could fall behind the Kenaston widening as the city’s next significant infrastructure project.
Allard said the public works department will present a report to the public works committee likely by January. “My goal will be to convince my council colleagues to reject this design and start all over again,” Allard said.
The changing face of the neighbourhood
The city’s plans for Marion and Archibald streets will lead to the destruction of the neighbourhood’s character, say residents who oppose the ambitious interchange and overpass.
The $250-million project would mean the closure or relocation of multiple businesses including European Art Glass, Teaser’s Burlesque Palace, Great Canadian Oil Change and the bustling Tim Hortons on Archibald Street.
One of those likely impacted homeowners is Maurizio Esposito, who lives on Archibald Street, across the street from the Tim Hortons.
After looking at the rendering of the proposed diamond interchange at the intersection, Esposito couldn’t even believe he was staring at the same intersection he has lived at for the past 14 years.
“I think it would ruin the character. It looks more like a highway project. There’s no businesses, there is no houses,” he said, speaking at the Tim Hortons he regularly gathers at with his friends.
Esposito acknowledges something has to be done to the area to help the traffic flow that often leads to massive congestion during rush hour as trains travel along the adjacent CPR Emerson track.
“Sometimes you get two of them in rush hour and it can take an hour to cross,” he said, adding he would rather see a smaller underpass near the railroad tracks as opposed to this massive plan.
Wanda Pike, who owns European Art Glass on Archibald Street, said she is tired of the holding pattern she has been in with her business since the plans for the area were first brought to light earlier this year.
“Now we are actually stuck. We can’t sell our business. Nobody will buy it, so what do you do? I can’t even retire,” Pike said.
She said the city is between a rock and a hard place when it comes the project, because she has seen firsthand the daily congestion on the street. She takes the same stance as area Coun. Matt Allard (St. Boniface), adding the city has to make sure the project is done right the first time.
“So either you do it, even if we have to move, but do it properly so in the long run it is something we don’t think, ‘Oh well, we should have done that,’ ” Pike said.
The stained glass studio has been a mainstay in St. Boniface for over three decades, doubling as a training ground for budding stained glass artists in the evening.
“We will be gone, everything three blocks (south from the intersection) will be gone, even the house behind us,” she said Wednesday evening while teaching her regular stained glass class. “If this goes through, my son will take over the business. We will have to move somewhere either in St. Boniface or move somewhere else.”
— Kristin Annable
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