BAY ROBERTS, N.L. — Eric Jerrett knows all to well about the traffic problems that exist not far from his Conception Bay Highway office, where Route 70 meets a pair of municipal roads.
Cross Road and Shearstown Road do not meet the highway at the same point, forcing drivers to look in a lot of different directions depending on where they want to travel next.
"It holds up traffic and it can be dangerous at times," Jerrett said in a recent interview with The Compass.
Bay Roberts resident Joe Pennell, who lives on the highway nearby these intersections, raised his concerns in a story published last month in The Compas. He is aware of multiple accidents in the area over the last fives years, and believes a roundabout would improve traffic safety.
Jerrett, a retired engineer and land surveyor who has lived in the community for over 50 years, does think a case can be made for placing a roundabout on the highway in Bay Roberts, but not for this particular area.
Jerrett thinks there's a more simple and less costly solution to the matter. By realigning Cross Road to meet the highway at the same point as Shearstown Road, drivers would have a lot less to worry about.
"It's going to be safer all around," he said. "You don't need a roundabout. A roundabout is a big expense, and it takes up a big area. (You must) acquire private land and all that. You don't need any of that. All you need to do is line up the roads again...and they can do it quite easily."
In an interview with The Compass in late August discussing the intersections, Mayor Philip Wood indicated residents told him the two roads were once aligned. However, from his time growing up in the community to present day, he cannot recall this being the case.
"It never lined up to my knowledge," he said. "Now, some people have said that it did at one time line up...and I've talked to some older people who were in their 80s, and they'd never seen that line up, because there used to be a train track going right through there, too. When the train track got out, it may have drifted apart. It may have been a bit closer of a connection there."
Jerrett would dispute this.
When he moved to Bay Roberts in 1967, he can recall Cross Road and Shearstown Road were aligned.
"It changed after that," he said, suggesting the change occurred in the late 1970s or early 80s.
Jerrett added there would not be a need to purchase land given this would involve property previously part of the railway crossing.
Personally, Jerrett finds approaching Cross Road coming down the hill along the highway particularly troublesome in the winter, as the right turn from Route 70 on to Cross Road is very sharp. When the roads are icy or slippery, the likelihood of hitting another vehicle increases when trying to turn left from that road onto the highway. He typically makes this trip during the day to check the mail.
"If there's a car there, ready to turn left then, 'Oh, oh, am I going to skid into him?'" Jerrett said. "I have to be very careful when I'm making this acute turn that I don't slip over into him. Then when I come back with the mail, I'm in the same spot that he's in. Now I'm going to turn left and I see cars coming down over the hill turning...to Cross Road and I'm saying, 'Is he going to be able to make that turn without sliding into me?'"
This hazard could be eliminated, he suggests, by adding a short turning lane and yield sign for vehicles making the right turn on to Cross Road.
As for a roundabout, Jerrett believes such road infrastructure could aid traffic flow at the L.T. Stick Drive-Route 70 intersection. This area serves as the main access point to Bay Roberts coming from Veterans Memorial Highway.
"There's a lot more traffic there," he said.
The Town of Bay Roberts has a $1.2 million project in the works for Cross Road through a federal-provincial funding program, and Mayor Wood has indicated the contracted engineering consultant will be asked to look at how Cross Road intersects with the highway.
Wood said the town is also discussing the possibility of fitting work on Shearstown Road into its 2020 municipal budget.
In response to a recent inquiry from The Compass about the feasibility of adding a roundabout to the highway where it meets Shearstown Road and Cross Road, a Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Transportation and Works spokesman said it has not identified this particular section of Route 70 as a problem area, adding the municipality has not brought it up with the province.
The spokesman said the two intersections are approximately 30 metres apart, which would fall in line with design guidelines for intersection spacing.
"We are constantly monitoring traffic and highway conditions and if there were concerns identified we would undertake a warranty check process to determine if changes are required," the spokesman said. "This is an established policy by the Transportation Association of Canada. Any recommendations from this process would be considered in the annual roads plan."
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