Making it safe

There may be changes on the way to the highway between Labrador City and Wabush.

In the Aug. 31 Wabush council meeting, Coun. Terry Curran outlined some safety concerns on First Street in the Wabush Industrial Park and put forward a proposal to make the intersection near Harris & Roome safer.

"I'm worried there's going to be a serious accident there soon," he said in last week's meeting. "Just driving down the street there you see people pulling out and turning towards Lab. City and people always have to slow down. I started thinking about it and asked: how can we make this better?"

He originally thought reducing the speed limit on the highway from 80 kilometres to 60 kilometres would be a good way to mitigate the problem, but he said there's so much traffic on the road he wondered how effective it would be on its own.

Curran then considered making First Street a one-way road, but wondered if it would be confusing to have a one-way on such a short street when the rest of the park wouldn't be impacted.

"Then I thought if we just didn't turn left there (coming onto the highway from the intersection) it would take care of the problem," he said. "Turning right towards Wabush isn't such a problem because you can pull over if something is coming and you don't have to cross over oncoming traffic."

Curran explained putting up a right-turn only sign and changing the speed limit to 60 km would make a world of difference at the intersection.

He pointed out people wanting to go to Lab. City from the Industrial Park would just travel down to Second Street and turn left on the straight-away.

"Yes, you still have to cut across traffic, but you at least you can see what's coming," he said. "I've seen some really close calls."

Curran said the changes would be low cost - it would only require the installation and replacement of two signs - and it doesn't require a change to town bylaws.

Council, he noted, was very supportive of the suggestion and Wabush Mayor Jim Farrell committed to talking to the provincial government about changing the speed limit.

Curran said town staff has already spoke to businesses in the area - they didn't have any major issues with the idea - so now it's just a matter of advertising the potential change and getting feedback from residents.

"The initial reaction is it does seem to make sense," he pointed out. "Any change the Town makes, we advertise it to give people a chance to comment, and from there we make a decision."

Curran said the RNC will have to be notified of the change when it comes into effect to ensure it's enforced, but he expects people will catch on very quickly, and hopes it'll be implemented ASAP.

The change to the speed limit could take a little longer than putting up a right-turn only sign at the intersection because it's a provincial highway, but Curran doesn't think government will deny the request.

"I can't see it being an issue because right now it's 60 km coming around the bridge and right there (on the turn before the intersection on First Street) we have the railway, the entrance to the Trans Labrador Highway and the entrance to the industrial park, so to me, that's more tangly than coming around the bridge."

The councillor just hopes the changes can be made before there's a serious accident in the area.

"The communities are growing, there's more traffic all the time and the intersection is used more and more often," he pointed out. "I would not feel good about myself if something happened there and I did nothing about it."