A member of city council wants to see what solutions can be found to a traffic challenge that's developed along a section of Lauzon Parkway in Windsor.
Ward 9's Kieran McKenzie has asked administration for a report on how to solve a traffic issue at the intersection of Lauzon Parkway and Twin Oaks Drive, which sits at the top of Lauzon Parkway near the E.C. Row Expressway.
To facilitate construction of the $5-billion NextStar Energy electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant, the city closed a section of E.C. Row Avenue East, an access road off Banwell Road that ran parallel to the E.C. Row Expressway and was used to access the Twin Oaks Business Park.
As a result of that closure, the only access to the business park is at the intersection of Twin Oaks Drive and Lauzon Parkway.
McKenzie says that's created a lot of traffic pressure at the intersection of Twin Oaks and Lauzon Parkway, especially at peak periods, when traffic is cueing.
"A lot of factors have come together to create a circumstance where we have a significant volume of traffic that's trying to get into the industrial park from one specific location. We just need to look at the different things we can do to mitigate those challenges," he says.
The intersection is also near the access ramp to the eastbound lanes of the E.C. Row Expressway.
McKenzie says it's an unsafe circumstance at that intersection.
"What I've asked our administration to do is to look at what we can potentially do over the short term, but also there does need to be a long-term solution put into place, i.e.., there has to be a capital project to expand the capacity of that intersection in the long run," he says.
The Twin Oaks Business Park is home to a number of companies, including Green Shield Canada and Jamieson Laboratories.