Township tables plan to lower speed limit along Lake Range Drive

A plan to lower the speed limit along Lake Range Drive, to 60 km/h, has been tabled by Huron-Kinloss Township.

At the Aug. 15 council meeting, deputy mayor Wilfred Gamble told the delegation, led by Wayne and Patt Lowry, that council would listen to the presentation but no decision would be made that night.

At the Aug. 3 committee-of-the-whole meeting, council had agreed to install larger Stop signs and drop the speed limit to 60 km/h all along Lake Range Drive in response to concerns about safety at the intersections of Lake Range Drive with Concession 8 and Concession 10. The final approval was to come forward at the Aug. 15 meeting.

Aug. 15, both mayor Mitch Twolan and councillor Jim Hanna were away, so Gamble said further information would be brought forward to the next meeting when the issue would be hashed out again.

The Lowrys told council that Lake Range Drive is a main road, not a sideroad, and should be a through road, with no Stop signs.

Patt suggested the township do a traffic count and determine how much traffic is on that roadway, and where it's going.

She also told council there should be better signage in the winter time when the barricades are up at Amberley, directing drivers off Highway 21 and down below the hill to Point Clark.

"They turn toward the lake and they have no idea how to get to Kincardine from there," she said. "We should have signs at the bottom of Amberley Road pointing north to Kincardine, and then signs at the bottom of the 4th pointing toward Lake Range Drive and then north to Kincardine."

Councillor Don Murray said he was not at the Aug. 3 meeting but is not in favour of lowering the speed limit along Lake Range Drive. He suggested installing four-way and three-way Stops as a way to slow down motorists.

Rick Thompson, who was part of the delegation, told council that changing the speed limit isn't going to fix the problem of drivers not stopping at Stop signs.

"The lower speed limit from the 8th to the 10th is because of all the laneways along there," he said. "I use that road every day and it would be a long way to drive at 60 km/h."

He said Boiler Beach Road, below the hill, is a great place for bikers and walkers since the speed limit along there is only 40 km/h. Bikers and walkers can also use the trails and go through the Bruce Beach development, he said.

Thompson said his concern is at the corner of Highway 21 and the 4th Concession, beside the Pine River United Church. There have been several accidents there, he said, because eastbound traffic has difficulty with the steel guard rail in its line of sight to the north, and hawthorn bushes to the south. "It's a blind corner there."

Council agreed to postpone any decision on Lake Range Drive until a further report has been received from the public works director, regarding a traffic count and three-way Stops at each intersection.

Currently, Lake Range Drive has Stop signs at the 2nd Concession, the 4th, the 8th, the 10th, the 12th, and Saratoga Road. There is no Stop sign at the 6th. The speed limit is 80 km/h from the 4th to the 8th, drops down to 60 km/h from the 8th to the 10th, and then back to 80 km/h from there into Kincardine.



Stop signs on Lake Range Drive at the 10th Concession of Huron-Kinloss, looking south