Morriston Streetscaping Work To Start May 25th
We have been advised by the township that the phase 1 work for the ‘Morriston Streetscaping’ project will begin on May 25. It is anticipated that work will be completed by June 10.
There will be intermittent stoppages of traffic during the work so be sure to give yourself a little extra time when planning your day if travelling through this area.
What is the ‘Morriston Streetscaping’ Project?
The township has been issued a permit by the Ministry of Transportation to implement a Morriston Streetscaping Plan. This plan basically means the township will be planting trees and greenery along highway 6 in Morriston in an attempt to ‘calm traffic’ through the area.
An lot of money has been spent on this project, by the time it is complete it will be well upwards of $100,000. Phase 1 will be completed this year with other phases deferred after this year’s budget. (see budget article re this plan here)
The Township has received an estimate from its consultant that annual maintenance costs of the project will be approximately $2,000 per year (it was unclear in the document but I am assuming this cost is just for the phase 1 work).
To the best of my knowledge this spending plan was not revisited after the highway 6 bypass approval announcement from the province. Maybe it should have been.
This letter is in regards to the Morriston Streetscaping work.
The village of Morriston Ontario has been forced to be a corridor for major connecting highways for Ontario for many decades now. Plans to build a by pass around the village has been in place for many years but this critical project for Ontario has been delayed by the Provincial Government over and over again. It is the busiest two lane roadway in Ontario with approximately 22,000 vehicles per day passing though this village each and everyday. OPP statistics in a five year span shows this corridor from County rd. 34 to just past Morriston has close to an average of one accident every week and many lives were lost on this roadway and corridor. This does not include the constant close calls never recorded. Because of this, years ago we decided to work with Local / Provincial Governments, MTO, OPP, Wellington Planning Department, concerned citizens and groups to create the Morriston Street Scape Study. We were able to create some “road calming” measures to try and make it safer for the traveling public and the residents that walk feet away from moving traffic, to reduce accidents from happening. We were able to work closely with all parties and were able to properly pave our roadway ( because our buildings were affected by the vibrations from transport trucks driving on uneven pavement ), placed community safety zone signs up to let the drivers know they are entering a residential village, increased the size of the speeding signs, painted zebra lines on our crosswalk to make it more visible for motorist to show people crossing the highway, repaired a retaining wall, upgraded some of our sidewalks, increased the off ramp on exit 299 from the 401 eastbound to one kilometre. Now we are also allowed to plant trees and shrubs to create more of a village and residential feel on this corridor. The remaining items requested to be installed by the study is to implement better and proper lighting and signage. Because of the street scaping study, relentless actions from our local government, our MPP Ted Arnott, a strong business coalition, private citizens and concerned groups. Just recently the Government of Ontario has now committed to building this critical by pass around Morriston Ontario starting in 2019. This was truly a team effort by so many people to make the Provincial Government realize it could not delay this project any longer. Moving forward, we now have a great opportunity to reclaim the village of Morriston, to make it a beautiful hamlet and gateway into our Township of Puslinch once again. We should also continue to beautify the roadway through the village of Aberfoyle as well. We live in a wonderful, close knit community and should all be proud to call this our home.
Sincerely Yours,
Bill Knetsch