TRURO - A dramatic change is coming to a downtown Truro intersection.
The town will be adding lights to the intersection at Young and Prince streets to allow traffic to turn left from Young onto Prince and then right onto Lorne Street.
"The big thing is to give the traffic that currently shortcuts through the heritage streets ... a more palatable alternative through a main street," said director of public works Andrew MacKinnon. "The other big objective is to try to get the residential traffic to use Young Street to get to the high school and stadium."
Motorists currently coming down Young Street have to turn west and come down Pleasant or Faulkner-Muir-Arlington to get to Prince Street in order to turn down Lorne. The other alternative from Young is to turn right onto Prince and take Church and Queen streets to get back to Lorne.
"We think it will improve the traffic flow quite significantly," Mayor Bill Mills said. The change "might eliminate some people from going around in circles."
Signage will start going up this morning but the lights are not expected to be installed and operational until late September at the earliest. It is part of the town's education phase of installing the new lights, knowing the changes will take time for people to get used to.
"It will make a big difference for people going to school in the morning," said Coun. Greg MacArthur, who added it will be useful for motorists going to the Prince Street churches or town hall.
Another change will see traffic heading east on Prince Street, which plans on continuing downtown, need to be in the right-hand lane as they approach town hall. Traffic in the left-hand lane will have to turn onto Lorne Street.
Traffic turning left from Young onto Prince will only be able to use the right-hand lane on Prince Street.
MacKinnon expects the project will have the most impact on improving traffic in town since the intersections of Willow and Prince and Court streets were realigned about a decade ago.
Atlantic Road & Traffic Management recommended realigning Young and Lorne streets in a 2005 study commissioned by the town. At that point it was suggested land would need to be acquired from the Burchell MacDougall law firm and the First United Church, but that proposal is not being acted upon.
"There's land acquisition and expenses involved the town doesn't want to incur at this time," MacKinnon said.
Another recommendation from the 2005 traffic study was to consider reducing the four-way stops on Arthur Street. At that time, between 87 and 77 per cent of the traffic at the King, Dominion and Pleasant street intersections was travelling on Arthur Street, while good traffic management suggested four-way stops are warranted if there is an equal amount of traffic from the side streets and Arthur Street.
It is hoped more traffic will use Young Street, which would impact the traffic crossing Arthur Street. But further study would need to be done before stop signs are removed on Arthur Street.
jmalloy@trurodaily.com
In a nutshell.....I really see no purpose in having Prince Street as a one-way street. Making it 2-way would allow for a better flow of traffic through the town`s core instead of driving around in circles and confusing tourists.