Resident Lew Young thinks it would be a “great memorial” to his deceased relatives if the province installed traffic lights on Highway 1 to improve safety.
Young’s aunt and uncle died in a car collision 17 years ago at the intersection of Ninth Avenue Northwest and Highway 1. Since then, he and his wife have encouraged their kids to avoid that intersection and use the Main Street overpass to reach the highway. They follow that advice to this day.
The concerned resident was one of 27 people who attended a town hall meeting on Dec. 1 at the Events Centre to discuss ways to improve safety at that intersection. The mayor, city manager, chamber of commerce and three emergency services organizations spoke, as did several residents.
The two main suggestions were installing traffic lights or building an overpass — at Ninth Avenue Northwest specifically and potentially Thatcher Drive East.
“Ideally, yes, an overpass, but as I heard the figure tonight, $500,000 to $1 million to put lights there would at least say we did something,” Young said.
“And to see lights at that intersection would be an honour to our family an awful lot, to know that something has finally been done at that intersection.”
Coun. Jamey Logan spoke as a business owner with a business on the intersection’s south side.
His company is the closest to the junction and he forbids his staff from crossing there to ensure their protection. However, they feel bad for businesses on the north side because they can’t access those places, costing those entities revenue.
“We try to go (in) the other direction just to be safe,” said Logan. “As a homeowner, I’m actually the closest house on the opposite side of Ninth Avenue as well. And the same thing, we purposefully go up Main Street … .”
He added that he was fully behind whatever idea the province developed for that junction to keep everyone safe.
Lee Finishen, chair of the South Central Transportation Planning Committee, urged everyone to push the Ministry of Highways to build an overpass, especially since the province is conducting consultations near Indian Head about constructing something similar.
“Safety is an issue,” he stated.
Every committee member — including Moose Jaw rep Coun. Crystal Froese — can nominate three safety projects they want to see occur, Finishen said. The group can now nominate an initiative because it has enough safety data about the area.
“Obviously, it’s not going to happen right away, but at least it’ll get another avenue into the Ministry of Highways — and we’ll commit to that easily,” he added.
Building overpasses is “the ultimate solution,” but the province may shy away from them because of cost, said Mayor Clive Tolley. Therefore, installing lights would be a temporary solution that would help people access those intersections safely.
Dennis Zerr, a resident since the 1950s, also knew people killed at that intersection and believes the federal government should support safety measures there because the Trans-Canada Highway is a national road.
He noted that Ottawa provided money to help the Saskatchewan government build a $3-billion overpass system near Regina. Those upgrades made accessing bedroom communities such as Pilot Butte — his son lives there — and White City safer.
Besides Ninth Avenue Northwest, Zerr thought Thatcher Drive East would also become a concern as the east side grew. However, he thought lights were a bad idea — he preferred overpasses — because stopping semi-trucks on the highway could create ice build-up.
Moose Jaw should follow Swift Current’s lead, Zerr added, because it funnels semis down reduced-speed service roads past businesses before connecting them to the highway.
