Call it the Salem Road slowdown.
By direct motion Monday night, city council fixed the speed limit on all of the south-end Barrie street at 60 kilometres an hour.
Coun. Gary Harvey, who represents this part of the city, said Salem Road has become extremely busy with the expansion and construction happening near McKay Road.
“They’ve seen an extreme volume of dump trucks and additional cars,” he said. “I spent 15 minutes on the street because I only needed to spend 15 (minutes) there (Monday) afternoon before I saw how bad it was. In those 15 minutes, 17 dump trucks went by along with almost as many cars.
“Not to say that they were speeding, however they weren’t exactly doing 60 kilometres an hour.”
On Salem Road, between Veterans Drive and Essa Road, two-thirds of the street had been 80 km/h with three homes and a children's dance studio. The speed limit is 60 km/h on the last third, toward Essa Road, with 10 homes and a church.
Due to the road closure that starts right at the corner of Veterans and Salem, drivers missing the detour signs at Mapleview Drive West are also ending up on Salem, Harvey said.
But it was raw traffic numbers that convinced the ward councillor to act.
“When you start doing that volume, even if we’re to lessen it down to one dump truck per minute, as opposed to 17 in 15 minutes, over an eight-hour period that’s 480 dump trucks going on the road in either direction, and that’s no quite what this road was designed for,” he said.
“I think it’s critical that we slow this down to the 60 kilometres an hour in light of the residential and especially the dance studio in the area.”
The speed limit on Salem Road is now 60 km/h from Highway 400 to the city limit, which is County Road 27, as defined by Barrie’s rates of speed bylaw.
Because the slowdown was passed last night in a direct motion by council, it becomes law as soon as the city can get new signs up.
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