What goes around

Union Road stuck in a time loop

The last time Shire Hall sunk money into improving Union Road, thencouncillor Jim Dunlop had a warning. “I expect a year from now the neighbours will be here asking us to install speed bumps to calm the traffic,” predicted Dunlop in April 2014.

Dunlop understood that improvements to this wee connecting road would lead directly to higher speeds and more traffic. It took a bit longer for Dunlop’s prediction to be borne out, but last week Union Road was back on Council’s table looking for speed bumps.

“The public thinks that Union Road is a curvy, hilly road through a charming historical hamlet,” said Pam Belli, a 40-year resident of the collection of homes nestled on the hillside. She says previous measures have failed, such as speed reduction and increased enforcement aimed at calming traffic on this half-kilometre span of road. Belli wants Shire Hall to restore peace and tranquility to her neighbourhood.

Union Road is a remnant. It is a 570-metre-long span between County Road 1 and Highway 62. Until the expansion and modernization of 62, Union Road provided the primary link between Wellington and Belleville. Union Road as a thoroughfare is redundant, as there is now a safer, wider intersection less than a kilometre further along. It should have been closed at the top of the escarpment to protect this community and promote safety. But every attempt to close the road to through traffic has been met with stiff resistance. History. Nostalgia.

The County’s Roads department slow-walked a decision on this road for a decade until it felt the risk had become too great. So Council approved $1.1 million to improve the road from top to bottom— not wider, just smoother. Cue higher speeds and more traffic.

It serves as a minor shortcut, offering commuters the potential to shave a few seconds from the journey to and from Belleville. While it has always been a narrow and twisty roadway, gravity and time have combined to make the road a precarious adventure for vehicles meeting on the blind corner.

Belli reported that an average of more than 1,100 vehicles travel on Union Road each day. Of these, 97 per cent are moving faster than the speed limit. The OPP has recorded eight instances where vehicles were moving at more than 90 kilometres per hour—more than double the speed limit.

The County’s Traffic Committee last month recommended lowering the speed limit to 20 kilometres per hour.

Councillor Sam Grosso wants quick action. He wants to close the road or make it one-way only.

“I’ve been on the road, and I have met with the neighbours there,” said Grosso. “It is like Formula 1 on that road. I feel their pain, and their pain has been going on for a lot of years.”

Councillor Janice Maynard supported keeping Union Road open in 2015 and the improvements required.

“I don’t know that we are going to do photo radar as of yet, but I think that there needs to be more enforcement and a way to slow down existing traffic,” suggested Maynard. “Perhaps we need to look at speed humps in that particular area and signage for no truck traffic.”

Ultimately, Council asked Shire Hall staff to prepare another report.

And so it goes.