KAKABEKA FALLS, ON — Regardless of whether the City of Thunder Bay proceeds with a by-law diverting transport trucks from Dawson Road, the municipal council of Oliver Paipoonge has decided to gather data to support its call for improved traffic safety.
The Thunder Bay by-law, which is not yet enacted, would force hundreds of heavy trucks daily to travel through the village of Kakabeka Falls.
Elected leaders in Oliver Paipoonge fear this would significantly raise the odds of collisions and injuries happening along Highway 11/17 which passes through the village.
But Mayor Lucy Kloosterhuis says that even without the additional traffic, new measures are needed to improve safety along that part of the highway corridor.
It's why Oliver Paipoonge has decided to collect some statistics in an effort to strengthen its case with the government officials who have jurisdiction over the highway.
"We've hired a company to do a traffic study count in the village in order to bring that information to the province to prove we need something there even without the truck traffic," Kloosterhuis said.
The work will be undertaken this month.
The outcome, the mayor said, will hopefully be "some kind of safety thing to get people across the road, which will either be lights or crosswalks. We're hoping a set of lights. But we have to prove to the province that it's a requirement."
Kloosterhuis added, however, that "if the numbers prove us wrong, we'll just have to leave it for now."
Thunder Bay city council is now scheduled to vote on the truck route by-law on June 17.
