Morinville’s Transportation Master Plan moving forward with 25-year look

Roundabouts are one of two scenarios identified in the long-range master plan for 100 Avenue.

by Colin Smith

Development of a transportation master plan for Morinville is moving ahead. Town Council received an update on the plan at its regular meeting last week.

An outline by consultants Bunt & Associates presented to Council indicated that four phases of the seven-phase plan are complete, with another almost completed.

The completed phases are the development of a strategic framework, the first round of consultation and communications, an analysis of existing and future conditions, and traffic forecasting/modelling.

Working out improvement strategies is 90 per cent completed.
Still to come are a second round of communications and consultation and the reporting phase.

A major focus of the update is planning for 100 Avenue, which is currently used by about 9,000 vehicles per day and sees the highest number of collisions of any road in town.

In 25 years, the number of vehicles on 100 Avenue is expected to jump to 21,500 per day.

The long-range plan calls for the avenue to be divided. It currently has 30 access points, many of which would be relocated or closed. All-directional access would be limited to four key intersections: 107 Street, 104 Street, 102 Street, and 100 Street. All other access would be right-in/right-out.

Also planned is traffic management either through the installation of three roundabouts or, alternatively, traffic signals.

“Regardless of whether signals or roundabouts are installed at key intersections, access management along the corridor will be key to the overall performance and safety of the road,” the update states.

The plan update suggests that roundabouts would be less costly than traffic signal installation in terms of right-of-way, construction and maintenance costs.

The three planned roundabouts would have expected right-of-way costs of $6 million and cost $5.3 million to build, while three traffic signal layouts would cost $12.5 million for right-of-way and $5.2 to $6.6 million for construction. The signals would also result in an extra $3 -$4 million in operations and maintenance costs.

The document also identified numerous other advantages of roundabouts, including reducing vehicle speeds and collision frequency, increased pedestrian safety, better fuel efficiency and opportunities for landscaping.

Council received the update as information.

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46 Comments

    • Brittany Nielsen right! I chuckled when I saw the pic. As of Morinville residents will be able to navigate that. Most can’t even drive the speed limit in town, let alone expect them to know how to use a traffic circle lol

    • Fred William Glaubitz in a small town that you can blink and it’s gone as you drive thru serious accidents shouldn’t be a problem🙄. 60 zone means 30 there

    • Fred William Glaubitz also, if ppl can’t even figure out what that great big red stop sign is, how do you expect them to figure out a traffic circle? 4 way? What 4 way? It’s a stop if you feel like it… traffic circles with those retards will only cause MORE accidents not knowing how to drive in them

    • Brittany Nielsen and I’d say they have problems with traffic lights as well. As a pedistrian I’ve come close to being hit multiple times at the lights at Sobeys.

    • I was stopped for a pedestrian in front of Noah’s Ark a few years ago and was rear ended. The guy totalled off my vehicle. Good thing I was there bc he definitely would have killed the pedestrian. There wasn’t a stop sign there…just a straight stretch with a crosswalk and that driver couldn’t even handle that. I would bet he was texting.

  1. There was a roundabout put in on Hwy 44 beside Villeneuve. I drive that way frequently and don’t see any accidents there. Pretty sure everyone who uses that roundabout did not receive any additional training on how it works. They were able to figure it out.

    Would be interesting to see the statistics on it in regards to collisions before and after its installation.

    • Stephanie Ryder they do as they are harder to get around the corner but the point was about safety. Did the round about make the intersection safer? I personally think it did with just my own observations and in turn would prove that people were able to navigate it without any special instructions.

    • Stephanie Ryder agreed. Many times. That is a tight circle tho. So semis drive straight thru vs taking thise tight turns. Coulda used a few more feet all the way around.
      I dont forsee a ton of semis thru main street morinville or am i wrong?
      I like the circle tho. Keeps things flowing except when ppl stop with no traffic cuz they are confused. 🤦🏽‍♀️

  2. Great idea! Then our town will raise generations of confident drivers who will learn quickly and be able to navigate traffic circles with ease wherever they go. 🙄 to all the negative Nellies

  3. I sure hope the quest to save money does not put pedestrian safety as less of a priority. I’m not sure how a busy intersection like the one at Grandin Drive and hwy 642 would benefit from a roundabout. That particular intersection would do better with traffic lights, especially with the amount of pedestrian traffic that is not just at peak times, but 24 hours a day. I think a roundabout would be great to streamline the traffic and definitely clear up congestion in that area but unfortunately put pedestrian safety at a much higher risk, especially when the bulk of the pedestrians will be kids under the age of 18 travelling to the 4 schools in the immediate area.

    • Brittany Nielsen well I doubt a roundabout at that intersection will be any safer. Honestly I want anything that will stop the major congestion that is happening in front of my house and reduce the risk of me and my family from getting run down in the process, as it is Grandin Drive is HORRIBLE for speeding and dangerous driving because people treat it like a race track all day long.

  4. 104 street seems like a strange one to have as a main throughway as it hits a dead end going north.
    They should do it on the street by shell where all the apartments etc are.

  5. Round a bouts and traffic circles are two different things. Tell me if I’m wrong. A round a bout is elevated such as a bridge with one lane of twists and turns and a traffic circle is flat pavement with one or two lanes of traffic. Traffic circle rules are inside lane/left can go around the circle as much as they need to but outside lane or right gets 1/4 of a turn and that’s it so everyone is always merging out properly.

    • Maurice Hagen this is actually a master plan done by an outside consulting firm, NOT a plan that council and admin ‘concocted’. Additionally, the plan hasn’t even been completed, accepted or passed yet, this was a preliminary report. Worth reading or listening to if you want to be informed somewhere other than facebook comments.

  6. The following is posted on behalf of Alan Otway who was not able to get the comment plugin to work for him.

    “Re the transportation report

    “I appreciate that the report not only discussed budgets on building, but ongoing maintenance as well.
    I would like to know if Fire Department had input on which is better for response.

    “We are getting bigger equipment, as well as emergency response to Leisure Center

    “Alan Otway”

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