Windsor-West MP Brian Masse and Ward 2 Councillor Fabio Costante are raising concerns about an upcoming Sandwich Street road closure.
As part of the reconstruction of Sandwich Street, the Windsor Detroit Bridge Authority has proposed a full closure of the road between Chappell Avenue and the train tracks on the west side of the Tilston Armoury.
This is a change from its original plan for construction. On its website, the Windsor Detroit Bridge Authority states that during construction "through traffic will be maintained along Sandwich Street. Traffic may be reduced to one lane at times."
"Affected stakeholders such as the Sandwich BIA, the residents on Prince [Road] and abutting neighbourhoods, the school boards, the hospital, all affected parties in this proposal have not been consulted and I find that completely unacceptable," said Costante.
The WDBA offered this response to the concerns raised Tuesday by the Windsor-West representatives.
"Community input is important as we finalize details for the traffic management approach to our Phase Two Sandwich Street Reconstruction activities. We are committed to working with City of Windsor officials to address these concerns in the final configuration while maintaining safety for the travelling public and the community," said Tara Carson, Director of Communications for the WDBA.
"This proposed approach – with a full closure – is different than originally considered as a result of consultation with the road authority. We are further reviewing the proposed approach based on community feedback."
Costante was told the WDBA is proposing the total road closure to reduce the construction timeline from 14 weeks to 8 weeks.
"You have to balance the community needs, you have to balance the disruption that's going to be caused to the community and specifically, in this case, you've got a major arterial road that carries vehicles, commercial and industrial trucks that is being proposed to be closed. I don't recall when we've ever done such a thing on such a road like this " said Costante. "It's not just the redirection of vehicles, it's the redirection of trucks that are carrying all this material that is going to be in our high-density residential neighbourhood."
The closure is expected to start on September 5, however, as of Tuesday afternoon there was no notice posted on the WDBA website.
Masse said he would like to come up with a solution with the WDBA so that these issues do not carry over to the next phase of the project scheduled for next year.
"If this is going to be forced down our throats then there has to be the proper oversight, active management, and practices to learn so that we don't suffer through two summers of this," said Masse.
