Antigonish Co.‘s warden says it’s taking too long to address an intersection in the municipality.
Owen McCarron says municipal officials met with their provincial counterparts from the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal Monday; shortly after, they received an email to inform them a speed reduction and rumble strips would be put in at Trunk 4-Beech Hill Rd., but not until into the new year, and traffic lights would not be part of the equation.
He says there was another collision a few hours after Monday’s meeting, the 19th at that intersection since Jan. 2017.
After December’s regular municipal council meeting Tuesday night, McCarron said they don’t understand the resistance of TIR officials to address their concerns.
“Council is upset by this, and our community is upset, and our community is fearful,” he said. “We’re asking for a meeting with the minister (Lloyd Hines, who is also the MLA for Guysborough-Eastern Shore-Tracadie) and our local MLA (Randy Delorey) because we want resolution to it- we want the minister to step in, and impress upon his officials the need to put signalized lighting at that intersection.”
McCarron said they’re concerned by the hold-up.
He said things are only going to get worse.
“We were hopeful that this would get resolved sooner- Christmas traffic is approaching, and (we’re) very concerned,” he said. “It’s a dangerous intersection- we’ve reiterated that since the last two years, we’ve been waiting for the study that’s been commissioned since two years.”
Municipal councillors first raised their concerns in Sept. 2017.
They held an emergency meeting to call for immediate action following a pair of crashes- one fatal, another that sent two people to hospital with serious injuries- at the intersection in a six-day span in December.
