Changes to Chiefswood Road may be on the horizon after Six Nations Public Works (SNPW) presented a transportations and road's needs study to the community on Oct. 19.
SNPW said they recently put out a survey to Six Nations Community members to obtain community input on what the priorities should be moving forward. The top suggestions brought back to SNPW were identified as roads needs. With the community's priorities understood, SNPW contacted Neegan Burnside Ltd. to conduct surveys on the Six Nations road system.
Neegan Burnside Ltd., the engineering and environmental consulting company, conducted the studies which focused on transportation and analyzing the amount of traffic on the roads, as well as focusing on various areas within the community requested by Six Nations Public Works and the Six Nations community. The road needs study involved visual field reviews on all roads within the community, and establishing a five year plan for road improvements.
Michael Montour, director of SNPW, said that the studies were done to gain information on issues that Neegan Burnside saw within the community road system. He also said that there would be no timeline on some of the projects the studies discussed and that they would move forward depending on whether funding is available.
Montour did note that the five year plan for road maintenance was the minimum amount of work to be done and that depending on funds being available more road maintenance could be added.
The transportation study consisted mostly of detailing areas of interest where changes could be made to the roads or intersections. The areas included were Fourth Line Road in the area of Ohsweken. Henry Centen of Neegan Burnside spoke on some of the changes that could be done to the road, including adding a two way left turn lane between Iroquois Village Plaza and Veterans Lane. He also noted that the road would have to be reconstructed to make it wider for the added lanes, and that Iroquois Village Plaza, which currently has two separate entrances, would be converted to a single entrance.
Another area of interest that SNPW are monitoring is the intersection at Sixth Line Road and Chiefswood Road. Centen said that there is congestion that happens at the intersection for cars travelling northbound on Chiefswood Road looking to turn left onto Sixth Line Road which causes congestion and queuing at the intersection. Centen said that different options were discussing to solve the problem including a 4-way stop or adding a roundabout.
Centen and Montour then presented the Roads Needs study where they covered traffic counts, and the five year plan on road maintenance and road rehabilitation. Centen said that the community has a few different issues it's facing when it comes to the quality of roads on the territory.
"There are various needs within your (Six Nations) system. The traffic volumes are one, on Chiefswood Road for instance you have between 8,000-10,000 cars on a daily basis. That is a very significant number of vehicles," he said. "We've also shown what kind of percentage of trucks were recorded when we did the traffic counting work."
"Chiefswood has 13 per cent, that is a reasonably high number and a more typical number would 6-8 per cent for truck traffic," he continued.
Neegan Burnside was also able to recommend budget considerations to improve the road network. Centen detailed that the studies found that over $1 million should be allocated for the proposed road maintenance.
Before the presentation concluded Vince Longboat, technical analyst for SNPW, spoke on project that would see a roundabout implemented at the intersection of Chiefswood Road, and Highway 54.
"We're currently in preliminary design for it. What it's going to do is, like most roundabouts, it's going to improve the accessibility through that intersection," Longboat said.
Montour encouraged community members to reach out to Six Nations Public works on any questions or concerns regarding the presentation.
To contact Six Nations Public Works by telephone, call 519-445-4242 or email Michael Montour at DPW@sixnations.ca
Listen to the full CJKS story below: