The City of Meadow Lake is down a traffic light, but that doesn’t necessarily mean this will forever be the case. During the regular meeting of Meadow Lake city council held Monday, June 9, a motion was carried to direct the public works department to explore options for running overhead lines in order to repair the existing traffic lights at the intersection of Centre Street and 2nd Avenue. The motion was brought to the table by councillor Mauri Young and seconded by councillor Tom Harrison. The motion came following a discussion about the currently inoperable lights, as well as the intersection that has since seen a four-way stop erected in an attempt to better control traffic flow.
“The existing lights have been out of order for several weeks and are non-compliant with current codes and specifications,” explained Hassan Akhtar, the city’s public works director in an official report to council. “The red light on the east light pole was not working. A technician was hired to repair the traffic lights. After some troubleshooting, it was discovered an underground electrical line is broken. Attempts to pull new electrical lines through the existing underground conduit were unsuccessful. Per the technician, the underground conduit is compromised and busted somewhere, which is the reason the new lines could not be pulled through. It is also possible there was water in the pipe that was frozen. As such, de-icing liquid was poured down the conduit and let sit for a while. The second attempt to pull the electrical lines was unsuccessful as well.”
The existing lights were installed 42 years ago, in November 1983, by Underwood McLellan Ltd. of Saskatoon, while the hardware was supplied by Canadian General Electric of Toronto. “Any major overhaul will require the existing lights to be compliant with current codes, which realistically means installation of brand-new, code compliant lights,” Akhtar added. The current traffic signal lights are noncompliant because they are not positioned to provide clear visibility to all approaching vehicles, the intersection lacks proper line markings to guide traffic flow effectively, and the traffic signal lights do not have the correct number of signal heads required for the intersection. The estimated costs for installing brand new lights is $150,000 to $250,000 with an additional $175 to $225 per hour in labour costs. Meanwhile, additional costs would would also likely be incurred for road modifications.
As part of the discussion, mayor Merlin Seymour questioned whether or not Centre Street and 2nd Avenue is still the best place for a set of lights. “I am wondering if Railway Avenue and Centre Street would be better,” Seymour said. “But, with the development on the other side of Railway Avenue, what does that look like?” Councillor Connie Marsh-Yuhasz wondered the same thing about the corner of Highways 55 and 4.
“There would have been a traffic study conducted by the Ministry of Highways probably in 2014 or so that would have looked at the intersections of 9th Avenue and Highway 4, and Highways 4 and 55,” stated councillor Conrad Read. “Highways 4 and 55, at that time, did not warrant traffic lights.” Councillor Marty Bishop said, based on past information about both of these intersections, Highways 4 and 55 is a busy intersection, but Highway 4 and 9th Avenue has a death rate. “There’s been a lot of people killed at that intersection,” he said. “That’s a more dangerous intersection than Railway Avenue.”
Harrison asked when these fatal collisions happened. Read also wondered this. “Any fatality on a provincial highway I have to investigate, and I’ve never investigated one there in my time (since 1989),” Read stated. Harrison also said it would be interesting if today, 11 years later, another traffic study could be conducted to see how the results compare to the 2014 study. “The population hasn’t changed much,” Young said. Harrison agreed, but said the amount of traffic has increased substantially. “There’s a lot more (heavy) trucks on the road now,” he said.
Getting back to the lights downtown, Bishop reiterated Seymour’s earlier point, asking – once the new development on Flying Dust First Nation is complete and it is determined a set of traffic lights are necessary at Centre Street and Railway Avenue – would a set of lights at Centre and 2nd Avenue be necessary. Seymour agreed. “If we are going to look at a new set of lights, Centre and Highway 55 should be better than the current location,” he said. Read, meanwhile, said, of the people he’s spoken to, some like the new four-way stop at 2nd Avenue while others do not like it. “The biggest problem is pedestrians crossing from all four lanes all at once,” he said. “Before, they had a red or a green light… We’re also going to have more accidents at a four-way stop than at a set of lights. There will be more rear-end collisions.”
He also believes, with so much stop-and-go at this intersection, it will lead to slipperier roads during the icy season. “If you really want to get (the current) lights running, you could run overhead wires to them,” Read said. “I know they’re not up to standards, but you wouldn’t need to go underground. There are three overhead lines that cross that intersection.” Meanwhile, in an effort to eliminate confusion at the new four-way stop, Marsh Yuhasz suggested public works place black bags over the current lights. “The bags are on back order,” Akhtar said. “I don’t know why. Even to get the signs for the four-way stop took several weeks.”