Golden Lake – While some homeowners in the hamlet have been approached about having their homes purchased for a turning lane on Highway 60 to alleviate the traffic congestion, it seems there is still much unknown about what will happen at a very congested intersection.

“My understanding is they are doing more consultation,” North Algona Mayor James Brose said on Monday.

The study on what will be done at the Highway 60 and Lake Dore Road/Kokomis Road intersection in Golden Lake began last February with a public consultation held in June to look at preferred options. Several options had been looked at with the short list options presented at the meeting. At that point it appeared the short list options were either traffic signals with left turn lanes on Highway 60 or realigning Kokomis Road with either signals, roundabouts, or left turn lanes. Now it appears there is the possibility of MTO purchasing and demolishing several homes along the highway in Golden Lake and using the land to build a turning lane, but this proposal has not been presented yet to the general public, although homeowners have been approached with letters about this.

At the meeting last summer, the public was told the next steps were to look at comments from the consultation and incorporating new information into the alternatives. This includes impacts on land use, traffic operations, impacts on natural heritage features and impacts on built heritage and cultural landscapes. According to documents presented at the first public information meeting, the project timeline called for the evaluation of alternatives in the summer and fall of 2023 to specify a “technically preferred alternative” and then present this at a fall 2023 public information meeting. A preferred preliminary design would have been developed in the fall/winter of 2023 and then the information published for a 30-day comment period in 2024. Full detail design phase and construction would be in 2024 and beyond.

The project timeline seems to be altered somewhat, according to the website hwy60lakedorerd.com. Since a preliminary design was not developed last fall, it looks like the current step is the comparative evaluation of short-listed alternatives in the winter of 2024 and then a public information centre in the winter of 2024 to present the technically preferred alternative. 

The preliminary design would occur in the spring/summer of 2024 and a public review would be in the summer of 2024 with the environmental clearance in the fall of 2024.

The current timeline makes it pretty clear motorists and pedestrians in Golden Lake will have another summer of chaotic traffic at an intersection with poor visibility which has become increasingly busy in recent years.

Mayor Brose said NAW approached the consultants at the end of last year to see what was happening with the intersection. Staff were told the consultants were still working on the information from the first public information session.

“We were told they will bring back some proposals in early 2024,” he said.

Mayor Brose said he had not heard homeowners were approached about having their properties purchased for a turning lane.

“It was one of the options they were looking at, but it didn’t seem to be at the top of the list,” he said.

The mayor said council was promised they will be kept abreast of what the plan is for the intersection.

NAW, as well as the County of Renfrew, have been pushing for some action on the intersection for many years. In 2020, Mayor Brose asked the county to approach the MTO about the intersection because at that point the traffic had increased so much. In the ensuing years it has only gotten busier.

The intersection of Highway 60 and County Road 30 (Lake Dore Road)/Kokomis Road in the hamlet of Golden Lake is in his township and is the main entrance to the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation. However, because it is on a provincial highway, the intersection is the responsibility of the Ministry of Transportation which has so far not seen it necessary to install lights or a four-way stop there.

Traffic has increased dramatically at the intersection in recent years with the opening of an additional two gas stations in Pikwakanagan, as well as numerous smoke shops and over 10 cannabis shops. There is also a post office, pharmacy, gas station/LCBO outlet, coffee shop/gift shop and food bank in the hamlet of Golden Lake which generates its own good amount of traffic. As well, NAW has been doing improvements at the community centre and there is a tourist booth there bringing in more activity.

Mayor Brose said he would reach out to the consultants to see if there was an update on the short list options and further consultation.