The Town of Plympton-Wyoming has budgeted for some much-needed safety measures at the busy Broadway Street and Confederation Line intersection.
In the summer of 2024, traffic lights will be installed at the crossing which has seen its fair share of crashes and close calls over the years.
Currently, it's only controlled by stop signs along Confederation Line.
Mayor Gary Atkinson has been pushing for improvements in that area for a while, and said he's happy that council endorsed the call for traffic signals.
"I was quite pleased that council was able to endorse that," said Atkinson. "We were able to provide some technical information that warranted the establishment of the lights there. We're looking forward to working with the county on that. We look forward to completing the project for the safety of our residents and those passing through the municipality."
Atkinson said they're also exploring the possibility of implementing a school zone at Broadway Street and Confederation Line, for the enhanced security of students at nearby Holy Rosary Catholic School.
"I think almost everyday there's at least one or two potential accidents that happen there," he said. "Anything we can do for the safety of our residents, we're going to try and do our best on that."
Atkinson said the signals, combined with the school zone, should hopefully eliminate the need for a crossing guard to be stationed there.
The crossing guard is a member of the town's Public Works staff because efforts to hire a part-time crossing guard in 2018 were unsuccessful.
That came at a cost of over $16,000 per year, and is almost double that when you consider the lost productivity that happens by having public works staff leave other tasks to carry out crossing guard duties.
Bluewater Power will be installing the signals, and RC Spencer Associates will be competing the engineering work.
In a report to council, Bluewater Power said it will cost approximately $200,000 to supply and install the traffic lights.
The cost of the traffic lights was included in Plympton-Wyoming's roads and water department's capital plans which estimates a total project cost of $1,850,000 over the 2024 and 2025 budget years.
The County of Lambton has agreed to pay 50 per cent of the construction costs.
Another $50,000 was allocated by the town for future road reconstruction in the 2023 roads department budget.
County councillors previously defeated a motion to install traffic lights, but changed their minds after seeing a traffic review from Greenlight Consulting.
