Meeting to update plan to improve Hwy 62 and Cty Road 1 intersection

A second Public Information Centre (PIC) will present updates and the evaluation of options to improve the Hwy. 62 and County Road 1 intersection during a drop-in style session Jan. 25 from 4-7 p.m. at the Wellington and District Community Centre.

Ministry of Transportation consultants are expected to present the evaluation of the alternatives identified at the first PIC (which included adding traffic turn lanes or creating a roundabout) and introduce the technically preferred plan.

The PICs are a requirement of the Preliminary Design and Class Environmental Assessment for the intersection. Feedback from this meeting is to influence the preliminary design and implementation strategy, leading to detail design and construction.

Last summer, the first of two public information meetings was launched online, welcoming comment on two improvement ideas of six explored. One was signals with left turn lanes; the other was the locally-preferred option of a roundabout.

The municipality had approached the ministry about the accident-prone intersection in 2020 but failed to garner support. In 2021, MPP Todd Smith and PEC OPP detachment commander Staff Sgt. John Hatch joined Mayor Steve Ferguson on site with minister of transportation Caroline Mulroney.

In October 2022, residents in the area received notices of preliminary design and environmental assessment for intersection improvements.

The roundabout at Highway 33 and County Road 1 just west of Picton was Ontario’s first highway roundabout intersection – opening in July 2009 after the County lobbied “to do something”. That pilot is now being repeated throughout the province.

Upon its official opening, the then minister of transportation stated studies have shown roundabouts reduce motor accidents by an average of 39 per cent and injury crashes by 76 per cent.