02-10-2010 07:56 AM
RangersFan
Economic Moderator
Fountain Street and King Street Class EA (Shantz Hill Road to Eagle Street)
www.region.waterloo.on.ca/fountain
www.region.waterloo.on.ca/fountain
WHAT WORK HAS BEEN DONE TO DATE?
The project is in its early stages, and a significant amount of work and public input is still required for successful completion of this project. To date, the Project Team has completed or initiated the following works:
A complete review and analysis of available traffic information, including traffic counts at intersections and select mid-block locations, as well as a generation of traffic forecasts based on planned developments in the area and an assessment of traffic capacity for the existing and future conditions. A traffic capacity analysis for AM and PM peak periods for forecast year 2023 is also currently in progress and nearing completion.
A review and analysis of collision history through the Study Area 2003 to 2008.
An inventory and assessment of the natural environment (trees, watercourses, drainage crossings, aquatic and terrestrial habitat) within the corridor is currently in progress and nearing completion.
An inventory and assessment of the social environment (including land use, safety and property limits) within the corridor will be completed as the study progresses and the scope of potential solutions to the problem narrows.
A Draft Stage – 1 Archaeological Assessment Report and Preliminary Built Heritage Report for the study corridor has been completed. Please refer to Appendix C for a summary of that report.
Topographical survey of the Study Area.
SCHEDULE
The estimated Project schedule is as follows:
- Class EA & Preliminary Design Winter 2009 – Autumn 2010
- Final Design and Contract Tender Autumn 2010 – 2012
- Construction starting 2013
02-10-2010 07:56 AM
RangersFan
Economic Moderator
Kitchener
Joined Jan 2010
765 posts
By Kevin Swayze, Record staff - February 09, 2010
http://news.therecord.com/article/668398
CAMBRIDGE — Plans could be ready today for a fix along crash-prone King Street, between Eagle Street and Shantz Hill Road, but they’d still be years away from reality.
Options under discussion include a roundabout in front of the empty Preston Springs Gardens and road widenings. Whatever is picked as a “preferred option” will go to a public meeting in the spring, said Wayne Cheater, the Waterloo Region engineering group overseeing a $200,000 study. A meeting date hasn’t been set.
The region has $2.5 million set aside in 2013 for road work in the area.
Cheater’s team has looked at upgrading roads outside of the study area, to move traffic away from the winding bottleneck, but that’s unlikely to make much of a difference, he said. It comes down to making the best of what’s there.
“We really haven’t come up with magic bullet,” Cheater said.
“The historic properties constrain us. The slopes are still there. The river is there.The railway is there.”
Tuesday at 6:45 a.m., another crash happened in the study area: a pickup truck hit a pole near the entrance of Riverside Park. Police report minor injuries.
From 2003 to 2007, regional staff say 202 collisions were reported in the study area. That’s more than double the 79 traffic computer models predict should have happened if there weren’t problems.
Trouble spots weren’t at the three stoplights along King at Shantz Hill, Fountain and Eagle. It was King between Fountain and the park entrance, with 63 crashes where 14 were expected. Then there was the King intersection with Chopin Drive, with 32 crashes where five were predicted.
A committee of staff and politicians meets in Kitchener today to pick a preferred traffic fix option, said Cambridge Coun. Karl Kiefer. He sits on the region project committee, representing Cambridge city council.
Whatever the region wants to do, it will need to expropriate property, he said. And he’s certain a long-talked about bridge across the Speed River between King and Hamilton streets won’t happen.
“There’s no way that’s going to fly. You’re heading right into a heavy residential area,” Kiefer said.
He wouldn’t object to a roundabout at King and Fountain to keep traffic flowing, but that will take continued public education to work well.
Whatever happens at King and Fountain, Kiefer wants the region to work closely with adjoining property owners looking to redevelop the area.
“It’s the most often asked questions I get. What’s happening with Preston Springs? What’s going on with the Kress site?’’
At the northeast corner, Faisal Susiwala proposes a commercial-condominum-hotel project on the former site of the Kress hotel. He was unavailable Tuesday to comment on the status of the project.
Kitty corner is the historic Preston Springs Gardens, which has sat vacant for two decades after it closed as a retirement home. Aborted redevelopment plans ended up in legal spat that’s taken years to sort out.
No plans are imminent for the landmark building, said Alan Hodge, a spokesperson for redevelopment there.
“It’s only just got out of court. We need some breathing room,” he said.
To view information about the King-Fountain road study, click on www.region.waterloo.on.ca/fountain
kswayze@therecord.com
02-24-2010 09:19 AM
UrbanWaterloo
Senior Moderator
Kitchener-Waterloo
Joined Dec 2009
3576 posts
Groundhog Day Meet-Up | February 2nd 7-9PM @ KW Art Gallery
http://region.waterloo.on.ca/web/reg...3!OpenDocument
NEXT MEETINGS
Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 5:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Fountain Street and King Street Class EA, Shantz Hill Road to Eagle Street, City of Cambridge
Public Consultation Centre No. 2
King Street Baptist Church,
361 King Street East, Cambridge, Ontario
03-10-2010 12:33 AM
UrbanWaterloo
Senior Moderator
Kitchener-Waterloo
Joined Dec 2009
3576 posts
http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web...df?openelement
12.0 What is the Project Team’s Preliminary Preferred Alternative?
It was found that all alternatives had total estimated costs ranging from $13,600,000 to $15,900,000.
Based on the evaluation criteria, the Project Team has determined that Alternative Design Concept 6 - Roundabout at King Street/Fountain Street, with realigned intersection at Fountain Street/Shantz Hill and traditional intersection improvements at King Street/Eagle Street - is the Preliminary Preferred Design Concept. The main reasons for this alternative being preferred is that it is deemed best from a traffic and safety standpoint, and does not require the removal of any designated or listed heritage structures. In addition, Alternative Design Concepts 1, 4 and 5 with traditional intersection improvements at Fountain Street/Shantz Hill require the removal of the existing Travel Agency building at the foot of Shantz Hill and are therefore considered not feasible.
The project team also recognized that Alternative Design Concept 2 - Realigned intersection at Fountain Street/Shantz Hill and King Street/Fountain Street, with traditional intersection improvements at King Street/Eagle Street – was also feasible but technically less preferred due to less projected traffic and safety improvements than Alternative Design Concept 6.
03-10-2010 12:20 PM
Urbanomicon
Senior Moderator
Kitchener, Ontario
Joined Feb 2010
1000 posts
"Only the insane have the strength enough to prosper. Only those that prosper may truly judge what is sane."
March 10, 2010
By Kevin Swayze, Record staff
http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/681820
CAMBRIDGE — Rose Cole fears a big roundabout at King and Fountain streets will be overwhelmed with afternoon rush hour traffic from a growing city industrial park to the north.
“People will just be parked there in the afternoon, with all the traffic from Toyota and Loblaws and now RIM,” she said at a public information session Tuesday night.
She drives the single-lane roundabout at Blair and Fountain streets weekday mornings, on the way to Conestoga College. It’s usually clogged with traffic by 7 a.m., with no gaps for more cars to sneak in.
“I’m now there early, so I can beat it,” she said.
For her and others clustered around maps in the King Street Baptist Church hall, a roundabout in front of the historic Preston Springs hotel was overkill. Several people suggested widening the King-Fountain intersection so it’s big enough to easily handle trucks and keep the stoplights.
People were lined up outside before the doors opened at 5 p.m. At least 125 people stopped in to look over drawings and maps before it closed at 8:30 p.m.
Waterloo Region is nearing the end of an environmental assessment of options to fix the bottleneck entrance to old Preston. The winding road is hemmed in by commercial and heritage buildings, the Speed River bridge and must swallow transport trucks backing into and out of Dover Flour Mills.
The preferred solution includes sidewalks and on-road bike lanes along both sides of Shantz Hill,
Fountain and King Streets. It also includes likely demolition of part of the Pines banquet centre.
More investigation into limiting left-turn lanes from Chopin Drive onto King are planned, at the request of Cambridge city officials, said Wayne Cheater, project manager.
As proposed, the plan costs upwards of $15 million. Regional politicians are expected to decide what will be done later this year. Even with speedy approval this year, any rebuilding couldn’t get underway until 2015, Cheater said.
Tim Krete doubted the plan for a roundabout and rejigged intersection at Shantz Hill Road would improve traffic flow.
“All that seems to be happening is they’re spending a lot of money for nothing,” he said.
His solution is closing Fountain Street at Highway 401. That forces all traffic to and from the industrial park around the Toyota factory to use already upgraded routes like Maple Grove Road, Hespeler Road and Highway 8 to reach Highway 401. Or motorists would avoid the area altogether.
Shirley Bowman shared Krete’s doubts about the roundabout plan — or any other solution to erase King Street traffic jams like the one that greeted visitors heading to the church.
“I think they came up with proposals because they had to come up with proposals,” said the co-ordinator of the Preston Towne Centre business improvement association.
The proposal swings Shantz Hill Road to the right going downhill, then sweeping four lanes of asphalt left to join Fountain Street. Two-lane Fountain Street from Blair would meet the curving intersection with stoplights, as are there now.
Lloyd Closs lives in a house beside the historic Jerry van Dyke Travel building, at the foot of Shantz Hill. He’s sure the new intersection will lop off much of his front yard for no good reason.
“I can see them putting in the roundabout, but not doing anything to Shantz Hill ... it’s fine the way it is.”
The roundabout had fans in Glenn and Anna Dance, five-year residents of the Kressview condominium tower that has its only driveway onto King near Fountain.
Today, making a left turn onto King is dangerous to the uninitiated. A roundabout would remove that danger and get traffic moving through the area, they said.
“It’s just super for us. We would just go right and around the roundabout and go where we wanted to go,” said Glenn Dance.
kswayze@therecord.com
03-10-2010 10:54 PM
dunkalunk
Village Member
Joined Jan 2010
75 posts
03-11-2010 12:17 AM
Duke-of-Waterloo
Senior Moderator
Waterloo
Joined Jan 2010
1026 posts
03-11-2010 01:42 AM
dunkalunk
Village Member
Joined Jan 2010
75 posts
05-29-2010 02:07 PM
UrbanWaterloo
Senior Moderator
Kitchener-Waterloo
Joined Dec 2009
3576 posts
Groundhog Day Meet-Up | February 2nd 7-9PM @ KW Art Gallery
Notice of Public Input Meeting
Class Environmental Assessment for Fountain Street and King Street - Shantz Hill Road to Eagle Street, City of Cambridge
http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web...2?OpenDocument
The Regional Planning and Works Committee is holding a special meeting to receive public input on the preferred design concept for the Study area on King Street from Eagle Street to Fountain Street and on Fountain Street from King Street to Shantz Hill Road in the City of Cambridge consisting of:
- roundabout intersection at King Street/Fountain Street,
- realigned intersection at Fountain Street/Shantz Hill Road
- other intersection improvements at King Street/Eagle Street
- Fountain Street - two lanes in each direction between Shantz Hill Road and King Street
- on-road cycling lanes and sidewalks on both sides of the corridor
- transit priority measures
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 | 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
King Street Baptist Church Hall, 361 King Street East, Cambridge
At this meeting, the Committee will receive an update on the Project Team’s Preferred Design Concept and the Project Team’s responses to the main issues received from prior public consultation.
If you wish to speak at this meeting, please register before noon on Thursday, June 3, 2010, with the Region’s Council and Administrative Services Division at (519) 575-4420.
All comments and information received from individuals, stakeholder groups and agencies regarding this project are being collected to assist the Region of Waterloo in making a decision. No formal decision on the preferred design will be made at the Public Meeting. Information received at the Public Meeting and in written submissions received before June 23, 2010 will be considered before a final recommendation is submitted to Regional Council for approval at a later date
Please direct questions about this study to: Wayne Cheater, P.Eng., Senior Project Manager, Region of Waterloo | E-mail: www.region.waterloo.on.ca/fountain .
A copy of the Planning & Works Committee report will be available on the study website after June 4, 2010.
Under the Municipal Act, personal information such as name, address, telephone number, and property location that may be
included in a submission becomes part of the public record. Questions regarding the collection of this information should be referred to Wayne Cheater.
Accessibility: This event is accessible for people with disabilities. Accessible parking is available. If you require assistance to
attend or participate in this meeting, or to access information in alternate formats, please contact Wayne Cheater at least five days prior to the meeting.
05-29-2010 04:41 PM
garthdanlor
Town Member
Uglyopolis
Joined Mar 2010
315 posts
05-29-2010 08:35 PM
DHLawrence
Town Member
Joined Mar 2010
417 posts
06-07-2010 11:52 AM
UrbanWaterloo
Senior Moderator
Kitchener-Waterloo
Joined Dec 2009
3576 posts
Groundhog Day Meet-Up | February 2nd 7-9PM @ KW Art Gallery
7:00 p.m. | King Street Baptist Church, 361 King Street East, Cambridge, Ontario
http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web...4!OpenDocument
1. DECLARATIONS OF PECUNIARY INTEREST UNDER THE MUNICIPAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST ACT
2. REPORT – DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
E-10-060, Fountain Street – King Street Improvements Class Environmental Assessment, Shantz Hill Road to Eagle Street, City of Cambridge – Public Input Meeting for Preferred Design Concept3. DELEGATIONS
Staff Presentation
Jerry VanDyke. Jerry VanDyke Travel, Cambridge4. ADJOURN
Al Junker, Heritage Planning Advisory Committee
Tina Bygrave, Cambrdge
Neil Palmer, Cambridge
Victor Labreche, Labreche Paterson Associates Inc.
John Waring, representing Board of Directors for Kressview Condominium
E-10-060: http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web...df?openelement
SUMMARY:
...
Based on the evaluation criteria, the Project Team has confirmed its assessment that Alternative Design Concept 6 - Roundabout at King Street/Fountain Street, with realigned intersection at Fountain Street/Shantz Hill and Conventional intersection improvements at King Street/Eagle Street - is the Preferred Design Concept. The main reasons for this alternative being preferred is that it is deemed best from a traffic and safety standpoint, and does not require the removal of any designated or listed heritage structures. In addition, Alternative Design Concepts 1, 4 and 5 with Conventional intersection improvements at Fountain Street/Shantz Hill require the removal of the existing Travel Agency building at the foot of Shantz Hill and were therefore considered not feasible.
The Project Team also recognized that:
- Design Concept 2 - Realigned intersection at Fountain Street/Shantz Hill and King Street/Fountain Street, with Conventional intersection improvements at King Street/Eagle Street – was also feasible but technically less preferred due to less projected traffic and safety improvements than Design Concept 6.
- Design Concept 3 - Realigned intersection at Fountain Street/Shantz Hill with Conventional intersection improvements King Street/Fountain Street, and at King Street/Eagle Street – was also feasible but technically less preferred due to less projected traffic and safety improvements than Design Concept 6 and Design Concept 2.
Design Concept 6 will be presented as the Project Team’s Preferred Design Alternative at the Public Input Meeting (PIM) for the Fountain Street – King Street Improvements project to be held on June 8, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. at King Street Baptist Church, 361 King Street East, Cambridge, to solicit comments from the general public and other stakeholders regarding the proposed improvements and potential impacts. Following the PIM, the Project Team will review comments received and report back to Regional Planning and Works Committee with responses and identification of a Recommended Alternative for approval by Regional Council in the Fall of 2010. Subject to approval by Regional Council, the Environmental Study Report for the project will be filed for a 30-day public review and subsequent approval by the Ministry of Environment.
06-09-2010 09:41 AM
Spokes
Senior Moderator
Kitchener
Joined Dec 2009
5291 posts
June 09, 2010
By Kevin Swayze, Record staff
CAMBRIDGE — Build a big roundabout at the intersection of King and Fountains streets, and all you’ll do is pile on traffic misery onto the historic crossroads and into downtown Preston, several people told a public meeting Tuesday evening.
“Adding a roundabout will turn it into a very friendly truck route,” said John Duncan of Fountain Street North. “That means more traffic. Keep it unfriendly to trucks.”
Jerry Van Dyke owns a travel store at the bottom of Shantz Hill. Instead of trying to push more traffic down Shantz Hill and along Fountain and King streets, he suggested reviving the long-talked-about western bypass around Cambridge. He scoffed at the idea of eagles along the Grand River killing any hope for a bypass. “The eagles would get used to it.”
If not a bypass, Van Dyke argued, Waterloo Region should build a bridge from the foot of Shantz Hill across the Speed River behind the Dover flour mills to hook in with King Street. Avoid the Fountain-King bottleneck entirely, he argued.
Regional staff say traffic analysis shows a bridge would move traffic through the area no more effectively than a roundabout, but cause a huge environmental impact.
The city should offer Dover a new industrial property, Van Dyke said, to get all the company’s traffic-clogging transport trucks off King Street.
Regional Coun. Jane Brewer — a former Cambridge mayor — said Cambridge tried a land swap years ago, but the company wasn’t interested. Instead, the company expanded along the Speed River, she said.
Regional traffic staff propose building a two-lane roundabout at King and Fountain, along with rejigging the Shantz Hill-Fountain intersection slightly westward, and adding extra turn lanes at the intersection of King and Eagle streets. The project would cost $15 million. Work is proposed in 2014, after three years of property purchases and pre-construction work.
About 75 people attended a meeting of the region’s planning and works committee, held in the hall of King Street Baptist Church, situated near the area in question. No decisions were made at the meeting — that comes at regional council in the fall.
“This is not a done deal yet,” said committee chair Jim Wideman.
Heritage boosters don’t like stuffing a modern roundabout into the heart of a picture-postcard vista that defines old Preston.
“It’s probably the most historic intersection in the Region of Waterloo,” said Al Junker, of the region’s heritage advisory committee.
Both the city and regional heritage committees want as little change as possible for the intersection, and especially do not want to see a roundabout there.
Derek Bowman of Fountain Street South was one of the few people at the meeting supporting a roundabout, so long as it fits the historic character of the area. Why not use cobblestones instead of concrete, making it blend with the old buildings, he wondered.
“Turn this into a win-win for everyone, not just for traffic,” Bowman said.
A roundabout would take the best land available for redevelopment at vacant 250 King St. E., said planner Victor Labreche, speaking for the owners of the former Kress Hotel site.
Widen the intersection instead, he said. A roundabout would also scuttle any chance of a co-operative redevelopment including the vacant historic Preston Springs Gardens hotel.
Residents of the Kressview condominium tower are wary of the roundabout at their driveway onto King Street. If it is built, they want a long-promised driveway to Fountain Street built as part of the project to give them another access, said John Waring, spokesperson for the condominium board.
Jennifer Montague said all the talk about a big roundabout has hurt her business, the Pines banquet hall at the King-Fountain intersection. Customers think the building will be razed to make way for the roundabout and won’t book future weddings and functions, she said.
“We aren’t going anywhere,” she said.
http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/725106
06-21-2010 12:28 PM
Urbanomicon
Senior Moderator
Kitchener, Ontario
Joined Feb 2010
1000 posts
"Only the insane have the strength enough to prosper. Only those that prosper may truly judge what is sane."
Council Chambers, Cambridge City Hall 7:00 p.m.
Agenda
PRESENTATIONS
Wayne Cheater and Steve Van De Keere, Region of Waterloo Transportation, re: King St./Fountain St. Improvements - Environmental Assessment Study Project Recommendations.
King and Fountain streets roundabout plan goes to Cambridge council Monday
June 19, 2010 | Record staff | http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/731832
CAMBRIDGE — Plans for a $15-million roundabout at King and Fountain streets goes to city council for review Monday.
Waterloo Region officials propose the traffic circle in front of the empty Preston Springs Hotel, along with rejigging of Shantz Hill Road at Fountain Street and widening of the King-Fountain intersection. The goal is to improve traffic flow through the bottleneck along the Speed River.
A roundabout idea was generally panned by 75 people at a public meeting June 8 at King Street Baptist Church. Monday, region officials are looking for more comment from Cambridge politicians. No decision will be made at the council meeting. That’s expected at regional council in the fall.
The 7 p.m. meeting is open to the public in council chambers on the third floor of Historic City Hall, 46 Dickson St. Call 519-623-1340 to register in advance to speak to any item on the agenda, or sign in with the clerk before the meeting starts. If eventually approved, construction along King, Fountain and Shantz Hill is proposed in 2014, after three years of property purchases and pre-construction work.
02-05-2011 09:26 AM
Spokes
Senior Moderator
Kitchener
Joined Dec 2009
5291 posts
Groundhog Day Meet-Up | February 2nd 7-9PM @ KW Art Gallery
Region considers Cambridge roundabout
February 5, 2011 | John Thompson, Wonderful Waterloo Staff
February 5, 2011 | John Thompson, Wonderful Waterloo Staff
Source: Region of Waterloo
The Region of Waterloo is considering changes in Cambridge that will see a roundabout built at the intersection of King Street and Fountain Street.
The Region of Waterloo is undertaking a Class Environmental Assessment (Class EA) study for the Study area on King Street from Eagle Street to Fountain Street and on Fountain Street from King Street to Shantz Hill Road in the City of Cambridge.
A recommended design has been developed for the area. It includes a roundabout at the intersection of King Street and Fountain Street, realigned intersection at Fountain Street and Shantz Hill Road, intersection improvements at King Street and Eagle Street, two lanes in each direction on Fountain Street between Shantz Hill Road and King Street on-road cycling lanes and sidewalks on both sides of the corridor and transit priority measures.
The Regional Planning and Works Committee will consider the recommended design at it’s meeting at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 in Regional Council Chambers.