KAGAWONG—Another step has been taken in trying to alleviate safety concerns Billings Township council has raised in the past with vehicles parking in the area of Highway 540 near Bridal Veil Falls, which has caused congestion in the area and poses a safety hazard for people walking and crossing the road while vehicles are going by.
The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) has now given its final approval and posted a total of six large “no stopping” signs (on both sides of the highway near the bridge).
Carole Paiement, communications services coordinator for the MTO, confirmed in an email to the Recorder on Tuesday, “no stopping signs were recently installed to address an ongoing safety and operational issue arising from vehicles stopping/parking along the shoulder of Highway 540 approaching the village of Kagawong and Bridal Veil Falls which made for an unsafe condition for pedestrians and cyclists in the area. The signs were installed on May 17, 2018.”
“The Township of Billings approached MTO on a few occasions over the past two years to try to develop a strategy to address the parking/pedestrian conflict issue which also resulted in the township constructing a parking facility just east of the village to accommodate additional parking needs,” wrote Ms. Paiement. “In order to further encourage motorists to use this facility and discourage parking on the shoulder of the highway, MTO agreed to install the “no stopping” signs.
As has been reported previously, Billings along with the MTO and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) had formed a committee earlier this year to look at the issues and what could be done to alleviate them. The no stopping signs were one of the actions proposed to be looked at.
At a Billings council meeting earlier this week, it was pointed out this past weekend vehicles were still being parked along the bridge (between the no stopping signs).
“A lot of vehicles were parked in our parking lot, but it wasn’t full,” said Billings clerk Kathy McDonald.
It was pointed out the OPP had provided some large pylons to the township to put in the area of the bridge to further dissuade people from parking there, however they had not been installed on the bridge this weekend.
“The OPP gave us these cones for this purpose of keeping people from parking at the bridge. So, let’s try this and see if it works,” said councillor Sharon Alkenbrack.
It was agreed by council the township public works department will be asked to put the cones on the bridge area. “We’ll do that and hopefully it will stop people from parking on the highway at the bridge,” stated councillor Brian Parker.
