Fewer cars, fewer floods in Park Street's future

The City of Charlottetown is closing down a shortcut used by thousands of cars everyday to access Riverside Drive.

Park Street, which runs from KensingtonRoad to Riverside Drive, besidethe Eastlink Centre,is going to be turned into a crescent.

More than 3,500 cars use the shortcut every day, according to city officials.

"The prediction is that traffic will reduce by 90 per cent," said Coun. Julie McCabe, chair of Charlottetown's public works committee.

"Park Street is a residential street. It's not a street designed for throughway traffic."

The city's public works committee hosted an open house Monday evening at the Eastlink Centre, with blueprints of the city's plans on display.

The project will turn Park Street into a crescent, by joining it to Beach Street,a cul-de-sac that runs parallel to Park Street.The resulting U-shaped crescent will begin and end on KensingtonRoad, with no access to Riverside Drive.

Some residents are delighted.

"It's like the 401 here," said Jackie Molyneaux, comparing her local streetto a multi-lane highway in Ontario.

"It's very dangerous now to try and get in and out of your driveway ... so I think it's a fantastic idea."

To join Park and Beach Streets, city crews will build165 metres of new roadway througha parking lot.The parking lot is used duringOld Home Week and Islanders hockey games and other events. Horse barns on the grounds of Charlottetown Driving Park will still be accessible off Riverside Drive.

It's all part of the city's Eastern Gateway master plan, according to city officials.

"We'll see around 3,000 vehicles need to find an alternate direction," said Scott Adams, manager of publicworks.

"You can take Exhibition ... Grafton Street ... there are still a number of options for traffic to get to where they're trying to go."

The city will continue to monitor traffic in the area, Adams added.

Flooding fixes

The city sent letters in recent weeks to tell people in the area what's going on. Ward 2 Coun.Justin Muttart saidhe went door to door.

"This project was well received," said Muttart,

"I think it's really going to have a huge impact."

Some people at Monday's meeting had concerns about water.Park Street is in a low lying areaof downtown and prone to flooding. They wanted assurances the project would not make the situation worse.

"In a few areas, around like Joe Ghiz Park, it's actually about two metres below our harbour elevation," said Adams.

"Anytime we get a major rainfall and the tide's up ... we start seeing localized flooding."

"We have all new catch basins and storm water infrastructure under that new extension ... We're going to see some big improvements."

Work is slated to run June through August.