City ponders bypass to ease clogged arteries

JOHN THOMPSON

Nunavut’s capital suffers from the same symptoms as a fat man who eats nothing but greasy junk food: its arteries are clogged.

Six months ago, city council called in three experts to help deal with traffic congestion.

On Tuesday, Sept. 6, council’s committee of the whole listened to their presentation, which outlined five possible solutions to unclog Iqaluit’s heart.

Most involve building a road that would run past the new Nunavut Justice Building off the Ring Road, providing an alternate route to Federal Road that would bypass the Four Corners. The planners hope this could draw about 20 per cent of existing traffic away from the clog at the Four Corners.

The recommended scheme would see a new road built south of the new Justice building. To improve lines of sight from the bypass road, the existing corner of the Ring Road would be straightened, so it cuts closer towards Inuksuk High.

Snowdrifts often blanket this section of the Ring Road during the winter. The new, straightened length would occupy higher ground, which should improve this, the planners said — although it’s not known exactly how snow would behave with the new Justice building in place.

After the presentation, Coun. Glenn Williams said he’s concerned that drivers waiting to turn left at this new three-way intersection would create yet another congestion problem. The recommended plan would give drivers along the bypass road right-of-way, with vehicles leaving downtown on the Ring Road facing a stop sign.

“You’ll create a bottleneck,” he said.

During an interview afterwards, Jim Gough, a traffic engineer from Marshall Macklin Monaghan in Toronto, said a left-turn lane at the new intersection could solve this problem. “I’d say that’s easily overcome,” he said.

Left-turn lanes should also be considered in front of the high school, as well as further up the Ring Road, at the Baffin Regional Hospital, he said.

Antonio Gomez-Palacio of the Office for Urbanism, also in Toronto, put a positive spin on fears of creating “another Four Corners” further up the road.

With the high school, college, new justice building and city hall all surrounding the proposed intersection, he said more pedestrians could mingle and socialize between buildings, in an area currently dominated by traffic. Benches and artwork could be added later to make the area more attractive, he said.

“In part it’s, ‘If you build it, they will come.”

The one option that doesn’t involve building a bypass road is to turn the Four Corners into a traffic circle. But this won’t help pedestrians walk through the downtown, snow clearance could be a problem, and “it doesn’t resolve the big issue of getting traffic out of Four Corners,” said Gomez-Palacio.

The planners also made several suggestions to reduce traffic that go beyond the jurisdiction of city council. They include:

* Split the post office, with another location further south. “I’ll be interested to see whether the post office itself is interested in moving,” said Williams, after he heard this suggestion.
* Stagger lunch hours. “We know this doesn’t work for everybody,” said Gomez-Palacio. But if even 10 per cent of residents staggered their mid-day break, this would ease pressure on downtown roads, argued the planners.

The designers will next develop a draft plan to present to the committee, which should be ready in the next four to six weeks. The committee will then make recommendations to city council.