Work on Victoria Cross roundabout to start in May

The tender closed on March 2 and last week a department spokesperson said there were no details yet on the winning bidder. The tender listed an estimated value of more than $1 million.

The roundabout will connect Queens, Union and Sparrows Roads. The end of Greenfield Road will be turned westward so it meets Queens Road just west of the roundabout. A home between Union and Greenfield will be removed because the end of Union Road will be curved to meet the roundabout, using property where the house is curently located.

According to the tender, the work will include building an active transportation trail and storm sewer installation. Drawings include a rideshare parking lot on the northwest side of the roundabout.

The tender calls for the work to be completed by August 11.

No comment was available from the province’s chief engineer Stephen Yeo in regards to the reason Greenfield Road will connect to Queens Road separately from the roundabout. Media interviews are limited during the election period unless required for public health and safety matters or by law.

Pat Uptegrove is one of the nearby residents who has long advocated for a re-alignment of the intersection. She said she wasn’t necessarily promoting a roundabout as the solution. Still, she sees it as a step in the right direction.

Ms Uptegrove first broached the subject in 2013 with then Opposition MLA Steven Myers, who raised it in the legislature. It took another 10 years to get results.

She has witnessed a lot of accidents at the intersection in her 10-plus years living nearby.

Many vehicles speed through the area and she has seen some blow stop signs.

Ms Uptegrove said the initial plan she saw years ago was to align Union and Sparrows Road and build the roundabout there, but it has been moved slightly westward.

A piece of her property will be taken up by the active transportation trail, but she supports that because it creates a safe space along the roadway that could house things like a community message board, pantry, little library or a safer location for community mailboxes.

“It helps us build a community,” she said. She is also excited that Greenfield Road will be changed so it doesn’t feed into the roundabout.

Most roundabouts on PEI connect no more than four roads, although newer ones in North River and at Charlottetown’s Vogue Optical intersection have five.

Ms Uptegrove expects more measures will be needed to ensure the safety of the area, such as signs asking drivers to respect the community and slow down. She had hoped the hill to the east of the intersection would be shaved down. She also sees speeding as an issue in the area west of it. Speed indicators were installed in the area last year.

“(Drivers) have to be very cognizant they are in a community where people live. This is not an industrial area,” she said. “People live there and play there and want to enjoy their families and homes.”