City staff toss cold water on $1-million Frontenac St. extension

City council will be asked Monday to turn thumbs down on a suggestion from two Ward 1 councillors to extend Frontenac Street to Highway 17 East to provide an alternative route in and out of the city after motor vehicle crashes.

Couns. Sonny Spina and Sandra Hollingsworth had proposed last year that the east end of Frontenac Street be extended to connect with Highway 17 East parallel with Trunk Road, creating a detour around the intersection.

A closed emergency gate could be installed at the intersection, to be opened to motor vehicle traffic as needed, they said.

Carl Rumiel, the city's director of engineering, says city staff met with Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) engineering and operations staff, and came up with this list of concerns:

• In order to support the volume of highway traffic that would detour onto Frontenac Street in the event that this detour was in use, the City of Sault Ste. Marie would be required to conduct significant upgrades to the existing Frontenac Street roadway
• It will be challenging to design a configuration for this access that will appropriately facilitate detour access for both directions of travel on Highway 17
• MTO has concerns with the proximity of the proposed emergency access to the existing rail line adjacent to Frontenac Street, as well as to the Highway 17 and Trunk Road intersection
• Signal timing for the Highway 17 and Trunk Road intersection is coordinated with the existing rail crossing at this location. If this proposed access were to move forward, there may be work required to address potential signal timing conflicts
• If the City of Sault Ste. Marie wishes to move forward with the proposed emergency access at Highway 17 and Frontenac Street, all costs would be the responsibility of the city. This would include any environmental assessments, preliminary and detailed designs, construction costs, permits and/or other costs associated with this work
• If the MTO has major rehabilitation work planned in this area, it is possible that a cost-sharing agreement could be entered into; however, further design and construction details would be required before the ministry can engage in discussion on this topic
• Ministry permits would be required for any work conducted within the MTO's permit control area
• The MTO would be required to review and approve the detailed design for this work prior to permitting and construction
• If this access were constructed, the ministry would take on responsibility for the maintenance of works on MTO property. Additional works outside of MTO property would be the responsibility of the City of Sault Ste. Marie to maintain
• Due to the scope and location of this work, the MTO would have a duty to consult with area First Nations regarding this work. Some procedural aspects of the consultation process would be delegated to the City of Sault Ste. Marie

City staff estimate the cost of upgrading Frontenac Street and building the emergency access would be $1 million.

Spina and Hollingsworth had asked that Batchewana First Nation and Garden River First Nation be consulted.

"This was not done by staff at this preliminary stage. If the intention was to proceed, First Nation consultation would be included in next steps," Rumiel said.

"Alternatively, this may be a good opportunity to lobby the MTO to continue discussions that began decades ago with Batchewana First Nation to extend Highway 17 to the east terminus of Second Line at Black Road.

"This would provide a more direct link to Highway 17 north and the International Bridge for provincial traffic," Rumiel said in a report to city council.

Monday's city council meeting will be live-streamed on SooToday starting at 5 p.m.