A number of collisions at a busy intersection on Highway 3 has a local deputy mayor concerned. Kimberly DeYong says she’s heard of multiple collisions occurring at the intersection of Highway 3 and County Road 29 this week alone. The intersection is currently under construction, and DeYong says some lanes are closed and barrelled off due to that ongoing work. She adds that it’s causing confusion on when people can turn from County Road 29 onto Highway 3. DeYong has asked the County of Essex to speak with the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) to see what can be done to address this issue while construction is ongoing, and has requested that an advanced turn light be implemented. She says it’s a well used intersection. “I reached out to the county on Monday and just said ‘is there anything we can do recognizing it’s a provincial road, provincial responsibility, is there anything that we can do at the county level to help make it safe?’. And then the next day, another accident happened. So the county, to their credit, got on it right away, they contacted MTO, so MTO has been made aware.” DeYong says something needs to be done to address the problem. “I think one of the things that the county has put forward to them is considering a left advanced onto the highway that’ll get more cars through, create less of an urgency for them to cut in front of oncoming traffic, and hopefully reduce accidents. But I also think it’s up to the MTO to come up with some solutions because this currently their construction site that is causing some issues.” She says improvements were made to County Road 29 which has since caused traffic backups. “The queue for it was kind of around and at a stop sign, so there wasn’t a lot of traffic. But now, they’ve improved the queue, but that’s just increased traffic coming though and it’s made both lanes just busier as a result, and it’s busier both ways at a time when the two lanes that should service those cars aren’t open yet.” An update was provided during the County Council meeting Wednesday, where administration stated that the MTO is now undertaking a review of traffic patterns and signal timing. An update will be provided to council when the review is complete. Highway 3 is a provincial highway, while Country Road 29 is a county roadway.
