Avondale Park in Grande Praire may soon be safer for local children. New signs and two new crosswalks will be added around the park in the next year. City Transportation and Safety Engineering Supervisor Robin Hutchinson says he was asked to look at what safety measures were already in place in the area and what could be added.
“We’ve looked at various engineering measures and I’ve also looked at the number of collisions that are occurring in school and playground zones….and based on the data… we believe that we’ve identified the most cost-effective measure which is relocating some existing signs, using oversized signs and essentially increasing driver awareness through those methods.”
The idea to look at signage near the park was first brought up by members of the Avondale Neighbourhood Association at a council meeting on August 27th. Members came to ask for more signs that show the area as a playground zone as well as crosswalks.
Even though Hutchinson’s data showed that all the signs around the park meet provincial and national standards in size at 60 by 60, he has decided to add a new 80 by 80 sign to the area, move a few other signs around and add two new crosswalks.
“In order to increase drivers awareness that they are approaching the playground, we will be putting a larger sign for the westbound approach… Another change that we will be making for the signing on 102B Street is we will be moving the existing playground zone sign further north so it’s actually at the boundary of the playground zone…We also identified a need to put two crosswalks out there.”
Hutchinson says it should cost around $500 to replace or move each sign and estimates that it will cost around $5000 to add para ramps and two new crosswalks to the area. It has not been confirmed yet where the money for those projects will come from.
Weather permitting, the new signs and crosswalks are scheduled to go in during spring 2019.