Intersection improvements at Curve Lake Road and Buckhorn Road could come as soon as next summer.
In 2022, the County of Peterborough Transportation Master Plan identified the intersection at County Road 22 and 23 (known as Curve Lake Road and Buckhorn Road) as needing improvements.
Since then, the county has hired D.M. Will Associates Ltd. for the provision of a Municipal Class Environmental Assessment (MCEA) and detailed design for intersections enhancements.
Over the last several years, the county and D.M. Wills have been in discussions with Curve Lake First Nation and the broader community to determine the best way forward with this project.
According to a report presented to County Council at the Dec. 3 Regular meeting by Doug Saccoccia, general manager, engineering & construction, a study was completed to determine the best approach to achieving three primary goals which included: Increase the level of service (traffic operations), improve traffic safety, and accommodate future growth.
Through this study, three design alternatives were considered including
• Alternative One – Do Nothing
• Alternative Two – Roundabout
• Alternative Three – Signalization (Traffic Signals) and Auxiliary Lanes
Staff recommended traffic signals and auxiliary lanes as the preferred alternative option for the intersection improvements.
As the alternative options were presented, extensive consultations were held with Curve Lake First Nation and two Public Information Centres (PIC) were also held at Wesley United Church directly adjacent to the Study Area for the general public to attend, learn about the event and voice concerns.
Saccoccia’s report stated that comments from the most recent PIC included the following general themes:
• Support of the Design Alternatives
• Speed and Safety
• Cycling Safety Concerns
• Property Concerns
• Design Alternative Concerns
• Roundabout Concerns
Saccoccia said in his report that Alternative One (do nothing) was deemed unsuitable as it fails to address the significant traffic issues currently being experienced. Similarly, Alternative Two (roundabout) was not considered viable due to major land constraints, including existing built structures such as the church, First Nations property, and potential habitat for species at risk.
During the Council meeting, Coun. Joe Taylor stated, “I’m familiar with the intersection and especially on the weekends, boy, it’s busy, it gets backed up a long way. When you were looking at various options for intersection design, did a roundabout rank anywhere in the considerations?”
An associate form D.M. Wills told council, “Yes, a roundabout was considered as alternative two. When we did assess it early …through the assessment, with the existing constraints, being the Wesley United Church on the northeast corner and existing agricultural farmland and constraints associated with that on the west side, it was ruled out because it would have required property acquisition and some of the challenges and expenses that are associated with that.”
He went on to explain that it was originally considered as an alternative because through the Transportation Master Plan, it was discovered there was unbalanced movements meaning there were a lot of left turns heading westbound into Curve Lake. However, with property availability being one of the major considerations for roundabout screening through their assessment, it was determined that property wasn’t readily available to acquire for the construction of the roundabout in order to move the setup point of the intersection west and avoid disruptions to the church.
Coun. Carol Armstrong said that there are traffic backups that can go on for up to a kilometre and a half at a time in the summer with people heading to their cottages in that area.
She asked if there would be some sort of sensor within the traffic lights that would alert them to changing.
“Are they (the lights) smart? Are they sensitive to the amount of traffic that is coming at it from one direction? Or do they have a set period of time when they’re on and off? Because unless they’re variable to reflect the volume of traffic, it’s going to get worse.”
Saccoccia said, “Yes, we would typically look at Miovision cameras, it’s what we’re now looking towards using, similar to what the city uses. And it does have an AI kind of unit, it’s not real AI, but what it does is it senses the type of traffic, it detects it. And if you had a long cue, it would actually give an additional cue, meaning the green would stay longer to allow more traffic through.”
Deputy Warden Sherry Senis asked, “When an emergency vehicle is approaching, will it also change the timing of that to allow them to get through? Because that’s one of the reasons that we need this, is because of the long line-ups, and there’s only single lane. It made it very difficult for an ambulance to navigate through to get to where they needed to go.”
Saccoccia answered saying, “At this point those details haven’t been determined. We did have some conversations with paramedics, as well as fire, and at that time, there really wasn’t a need, or availability to do that. That being said, we can definitely have those conversations through our detailed design process to see if there’s an availability to do that in the trucks and the units. But again, they’d have to be compatible with the paramedics and the fire trucks as well. But this is absolutely something that could be included or investigated through detailed design.”
Saccoccia said that if approved, the next steps would be enter into the detailed design process this winter with construction set to start in summer 2026.
The County’s budget does include the funds to complete this work.
Saccoccia told the Herald that the total approved budget for the rehabilitation of County Road 22 as well as the traffic signals/intersection improvements is $4,550,000.
The recommendation to proceed with alternative three was approved.
