It has been long anticipated, and now it has finally begun – the widening of a designated stretch of County Road 43 within Kemptville town limits is now underway. The project has been named “The Boulevard”, and is intended not only to increase the functionality of the road – which has been struggling to keep up with traffic demand for years – but also to “urbanize” it.
“The project will include changing the existing 2-lane rural roadway with ditches to a 4-lane urban roadway with curbs and storm sewers,” reads a project description on the Municipality’s website. “The roadway construction will include 4 new roundabouts and modifications to 2 existing roundabouts. The 4-lane roadway will be constructed with centre medians to limit the turning movements to the roundabouts except between James Street and Anniversary Way that includes a 5th lane to provide access to adjacent commercial establishments. There will be 3 metre wide multi-use pathways (MUP) that allow 2-way travel on both sides of the roadway as well as pedestrian crossings planned with pedestrian activated flashing beacons.
“The work also includes the removal and replacement of the existing 2-lane bridge on County Road 43 over the Kemptville Creek with a new 4-lane bridge extending to the South. The bridge will provide four lanes that are each 3.3m wide, in addition to two MUPs on each side of the bridge measuring 3m each.”
A well-attended information session took place on April 15 at the Municipal Centre, where residents were reassured that a primary goal of the project will be to keep the businesses along County Road 43 accessible to the public. In fact, the contract for the work stipulates that “no businesses can be closed”.
The work is expected to take approximately 3 years to complete.
Leave a Reply