Work to realign the School Road and Gibsons Way intersection will start this month, thanks to multi-government collaboration and a bit of pressure from the public.
The School Road and Gibsons Way intersection was highlighted as a concern in August of last year by Gibsons councillor Silas White, who was a school district trustee at the time.
He said the intersection was at an “odd angle” that made it difficult for drivers to see people crossing the road when vehicles turn from School Road onto Gibsons Way.
The angle had made for many close calls with pedestrians and other vehicles, White said.
He suggested money set aside by the school district for frontage improvements at Gibsons Elementary could be used in conjunction with money from the Town of Gibsons and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) to have the needed road realignment done. White set up a Facebook page in August 2104 looking for support for the plan.
Soon the public started sending letters of support for the project to Transportation Minister Todd Stone.
In February, Stone sent White a letter saying his campaign had been successful.
“I hope you will be pleased to know that local ministry staff are currently working with the Town of Gibsons to identify safety upgrades for this intersection,” Stone wrote.
“Please be assured that improving safety at this intersection is a priority for the ministry and that once a final cost estimate has been established, we will actively pursue prioritizing the project for future funding opportunities.”
In the end, the project was priced out at $370,000. Of that amount the school district’s portion is $75,000, MOTI’s portion is $200,000 and the Town of Gibsons’ contribution is $95,000.
Gibsons’ director of engineering Dave Newman said work on the intersection should start later this month and that “the intersection will be open but flagged during construction.”
In addition to the alignment work going on in the intersection, the Town will also undertake some sewer upgrades in the area while the road is opened up.
Those sewer works may happen at night to avoid major traffic disruptions.
“When we did the Gibsons Way watermain, we did that at night and it worked very well because, of course, we had way less traffic. But you’ve got the noise at night, which is not that great, but we will be discussing that with the successful bidder,” Newman said.
He noted that once finished, hopefully in late October, the intersection would be a major improvement.
“I’m quite enthusiastic about it,” Newman said.
“I think it will really tidy up that intersection and make it a lot clearer and a lot safer for everyone. And it’s been on the books for a long time too. It was identified as a concern by the ministry, by the school, by the Town for quite a while, and we just have this opportunity to work both with the ministry and the school to get the works done.”
White also said he was pleased with the plan, as well as the three-way collaboration.
“But I don’t think that people should now sit back and feel that everything is safe at the intersection, because it’s still a busy intersection in front of an elementary school and alternative school and the driver behaviour I think will be improved, but it’s still not going to change human behaviour and careless driving and people driving too fast,” White said.
“This isn’t the cure-all, but it’s definitely going to be a big help.”
