A city councillor in Regina is aiming to remove the trucking transportation route designation on 9th Avenue North.
Jason Mancinelli, who serves as councillor for Ward 9, is presenting a motion Wednesday’s city council meeting that will hear from delegates and will be up for debate among councillors.
Mancinelli said he’s bringing this forward because of concerns he has received from residents in the area.
“The primary concern that got my attention was the safety one,” said Mancinelli. “The speeds of the road as well as the way it has been augmented to try and accept this new route have not been done the best, and there are no funds to correct it.”
“It’s really close to the neighbourhood fences. With the left turns that have been added, there are no shoulders on the road and it is a single [lane] road that is not divided.”
Mancinelli mentioned other worries from citizens include traffic noise, emissions and the quality of life for residents in his ward. Investing in safer infrastructure to correct the road would cost the city millions of dollars according to him.
He has been paying close attention to this situation for years now since the construction of the Regina Bypass. Mancinelli explained how trucking traffic has increased on the stretch of road since the Bypass opened with truckers using it as a shortcut to meet up with Highway 11 north of the city.
For him, he said it doesn’t add up when analyzing costs, safety and maintenance standpoints when there is what he calls a “perfectly good alternative.”
Mancinelli embarked on his own study to follow trucks around their delivery passages on and off the Bypass through 9th Avenue North and to follow his proposed route to see what the difference was. The proposed route would have trucks continue along the Regina Bypass to Highway 11 and get to point of entry which are primarily the industrial area on the McDonald Street exit on Ring Road or Rochdale Crossing.
“What they would do is instead of going down 9th Avenue North, they would continue down the Regina Bypass to 11th and take the appropriate exit onto Pasqua Street or Albert Street North,” added Mancinelli.
When he conducted his study on multiple runs, Mancinelli found an average of 50 seconds difference between the two routes. He said the time variant is not very high at all.
Delegates at Wednesday’s council meeting include concerned citizens and the Saskatchewan Trucking Association which opposes the motion.
The meeting gets underway at 1:30 p.m. from city hall. This will be the final gathering for city council before the civic election on November 9.
