Upgrades to Malden Road in LaSalle are a step closer to happening now that town council has approved an environmental assessment recommending several improvements.
The recommendations include widening Malden Road between Cahill Drain and Meagan Drive to three lanes, which includes one lane in each direction and two-way left turn lane, adding new traffic signals at the Reaume Road intersection and re-aligning and adding signals at Bouffard Road.
Now that the environment assessment has been approved, there will be a 30-day public consultation process, and a 30-day consultation process with the province before approval can be given for construction to begin.
LaSalle Mayor Marc Bondy says when you talk to the engineers and consultants about the re-alignment of Bouffard Road, it just makes sense.
"We're going to eliminate accidents to re-align, we're going to put a signalized intersection as we will at Reaume, you're going to go three lanes, it's just going to make everything a lot easier," he says. "Obviously, this won't be done overnight, but over the next five years the majority of this project should be completed."
Bondy says they've had lots of complaints over making left turns on Malden Road.
"People have said it's terrible. They have to turn right and do a U-turn or turn into somebody's driveway and go northerly. Hopefully it will be done, done soon," he says.
Bondy notes that he gets a lot of complaints about Malden Road.
"Many are in relation to can't turn left on Malden Road going north. Whether its Reaume or Monty or any street that intersects Malden," he adds.
The other recommendations include, installing new sidewalks and buffered bikes lanes on both sides of Malden Road and, new pedestrian crosswalk and multi-use trails near the Cahill Drain.
With files from Rob Hindi