Sackville Group Pitches Pedway Project
from CBC:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-br...dway-1132.html
A new group is Sackville seeking funding to build a pedway over the Trans-Canada Highway, bridging the two sides of the eastern New Brunswick town.
Sackville is divided by the Trans-Canada Highway and the proposed pedway would cost between $500,000 and $1.5 million.
The pedway would also connect pedestrians to the Trans-Canada Trail and get high school students across four lanes of traffic safely.
Christine DeHaas, who chairs the committee spearheading the project, said Sackville residents now have to choose between a lengthy detour or crossing the four lanes of highway traffic.
“My children when they were little, I would bike with them in the chariot, and we loved going to Silver Lake, on the other side of the highway. It just came to me one day with the really scary feeling of crossing the highway with children or going all the way around that it would be brilliant if we had a pedway,” she said.
When Alex Thomas was in high school, he used to cross the Trans-Canada Highway everyday going back and forth to school.
“It's definitely not something my parents would want me to do,” he said.
Thomas, who is on the committee that is looking at building the pedway, said he was careful, but he's heard of some close calls.
“There is a suggested detour which takes you to the Main Street exit, it's also just a really congested part of town so if you're cycling there's no bike lanes, it's not marked and that sort of thing,” he said.
A pedway was first proposed about a decade ago but the project stalled.
Stacey Merrigan, a member of Renaissance Sackville, a town-sponsored community group helping with the effort, said the project still has to clear several hurdles.
"They still need to have some actual specs drawn by an engineer, they need to find out what kind of budget they are looking at and then even when they have that, they need to find funding,” Merrigan said.
Personal note - I know exactly where they want to build the pedway. It is where the old railway right of way is that used to extend north from the town. The right of way is now occupied by the Trans Canada Trail. On the south side of the TCH, the access would be by the Waterfowl Park. On the north side, Tantramar High School has their own marshland park. The pedway would connect the two parks, provide access to the Trans Canada Trail leading to PEI and would also provide safe pedestrian access to Tantramar High School over the TCH from the east end of town. This project has considerable merit! 