Burnaby residents living near Dawson Street and Gilmore Avenue are still dealing with a traffic mess left over from work on a Fortis gas line upgrade last year, according to one local strata president.
People living in the Tandem complex in the 4100 and 4200 blocks of Dawson Street were warned last May the city would be reconfiguring the street in front of their buildings to deal with extra traffic expected from Lougheed while Fortis worked on its pipeline replacement.
“We understood that some temporary action would have to be taken to help traffic flow in the community, and were willing to suffer some short term inconvenience for the good of everyone driving in the area,” Martin Kendell, president of the Tandem Tower 3 strata at 4182 Dawson St., wrote in a letter to the city’s public safety committee.
As Fortis’s work was wrapping up in the area, though, Kendell was told the changes were permanent, he said.
“The final product was a mess,” he wrote. “Vehicles were driving the wrong way into oncoming traffic, old reflectors left from the previous line configuration were left on the road and traffic signs that were no longer pertinent to the new traffic flow were left up for weeks after the reconfiguration.”
The city restriped Dawson Street to create two eastbound lanes and one westbound lane since the afternoon rush is the most critical, according to assistant director of engineering Doug Louie.
But for Tandem residents on the south side of the Dawson, making a left turn onto the street across two lanes of eastbound traffic became treacherous, according to Kendell, especially with parked cars on Dawson obstructing their view.
“Trying to make a left turn out of there is almost suicidal,” he said of the driveway closest to Gilmore.
During the Fortis work, the city also reconfigured the intersection at Dawson and Gilmore Avenue, combining the through lane and right-turn lane, which has resulted in westbound lineups when cars try to turn right but can’t because of pedestrians crossing Gilmore by the SkyTrain station.
“This is leading to extreme backups during the rush hour periods and people illegally using the dedicated left turn lane to proceed straight through the intersection,” Kendell said.
Since receiving Kendell’s letter, the city has removed one of the parking spots on the south side of Dawson, to improve the sight lines for cars coming out of one of the Tandem driveways.
Left turns out of the other Tandem driveway closer to Gilmore are now restricted during rush hour.
Louie said the city would also consider changing the intersection at Dawson and Gilmore back to the way it was, but any quick adjustments may be hampered by the weather.
“We cannot paint lines very well right now,” he said. “The weather is poor and it will not stick.”
Because major construction is expected in the area on the north side of Dawson Street over the next couple years, however, Louie also said the city is trying to limit further changes to the configuration of the street.
“What we’re trying not to do, as we could have done, is revert everything back to the way it was before but then with construction a few months later we would then have to change it again, so we’re always striping and re-striping,” Louie said at a public safety committee meeting earlier this month. “We’re trying to minimize that to minimize the cost and the confusion, frankly, to some of the drivers along the road.”
While Kendell is happy the city is taking steps to address the issues he has raised, he’s concerned about the future.
“My big thing from day one is honestly the lack of consultation with the community,” he said. “I understand that Burnaby is growing exponentially, especially in this area in the next couple of years, but, at the same time, we live in this area, and you can see it’s becoming unsafer by the day, honestly.”
