SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — If a Summerside taxpayer had never heard of the East-West Connector project, they could perhaps be forgiven.
Despite being on the city’s books since 2001, the project has garnered little public attention over the years.
Today, however, it is a significant development that could potentially change how people navigate and do business in the city in the future.
The Journal Pioneer decided to take a closer look at the proposal.
What is it?
In short, the East-West Connector is a proposed infrastructure project involving the construction of a new road that would connect Water Street East, near the Canada Bread bakery outlet, north to the existing intersection of Ryan Street and MacEwen road, near Athena Consolidated School.
“It’s going across the middle half of the city. It’s really a continuation of Pope Road,” said Aaron MacDonald, Summerside’s technical services director.
Why talk about it now?
The East-West Connector recently made a brief appearance before city council concerning gas tax funding.
The gas tax program is a pot of federal money that municipalities can access to help with infrastructure projects. Part of this fund is administered by the provincial government and as such, the province requires municipalities to submit multi-year priority lists for the money.
The lists are non-binding and municipalities can change them if needed, but the lists give the province an idea of what major projects the municipalities have prioritized for the next few years.
Until recently, the East-West Connector project occupied the years 2020 to 2024 on the city’s gas tax priority list.
Council recently voted in favour of swapping the proposed Pope Road extension redesign into the 2020 spot on the list, but the East-West Connector remains in place as the priority for 2021 to 2024. In total, the funding estimates over that period total $4,444,392.
However, city staff told the Journal Pioneer the project’s presence on the priority list should not be taken as an indicator that it will move ahead anytime soon.
It is simply there as a placeholder to satisfy the province’s requirement for a priority list. Council decides annually during its budget deliberations where to spend the gas tax money and, like the Pope Road extension redesign, it can decide when to swap out the East-West Connector in favour of something else on the list.
So why build it?
Bob Ashley, who was Summerside’s chief administrative officer at the time this interview took place but has since retired, explained that the East-West Connector would help solve two city planning issues at once.
“One is the constraint on future growth and development, and two, the traffic volumes,” said Ashley.
According to a traffic count conducted by the city in the summer of 2019, there was an average of 22,600 vehicles travelling daily on Water Street East between Small Avenue and MacEwen Road, but only 15,000 vehicles travelling from McEwen Road to Harvard Street. That means an average of about 7,600 vehicles per day were using Water Street just to travel from Reads Corner to the Granville Street retail area.
Giving those cars a more direct route would help alleviate traffic congestion problems throughout the downtown, but especially along most of Water Street and MacEwen Road, said MacDonald.
“Water Street East flows great – until you try to turn against it,” he said.
“One school bus, one garbage truck, one person that stops to let someone cut across and it all ripples.”
The city also contends the project is desirable from a development perspective.
On either side of the East-West Connector’s proposed path, there are about 300 acres of undeveloped land. The East-West Connector would open that area for development.
MacDonald said the area represents the largest undeveloped area left within the city boundary.
Who will build it?
There is no clear answer to this question yet.
The city sees two options as to how this project could materialize.
The municipality could fund construction itself. This would be the most expedient of the two choices but would also require significant investment on the part of the taxpayers.
An estimate the city shared with the Journal Pioneer pegged the cost at $9 million for the entire project, though exactly how much of that would be the municipality’s responsibility would depend on what funding could be secured from other levels of government.
Alternatively, the city could take the relatively hands-off approach and allow the area to develop at the discretion of local builders and landowners.
Developers who decide to build along the planned path of the East-West Connector are currently required to do so with that project in mind. Over many years individually developed projects would mesh together to create the desired roadway.
The major detraction from this second option is that it could take decades for the East-West Connector to develop organically, which would compound the current traffic problems along Water Street East in the meantime.
Local thoughts
Duane MacDonald owns Callbecks Home Hardware on Water Street East, directly in the area the city says it wants to improve traffic flow.
Before sitting down with the Journal Pioneer to talk about this proposed project, MacDonald said he was only peripherally aware of what the East-West Connector was.
After being briefed on the general purpose of the project and its proposed route, MacDonald said he has mixed feelings about it from a business standpoint.
“In terms of diverting some of that traffic I’d be a little concerned – is it going to stop people coming towards us and other business in the downtown core? Right now we’re kind of in the traffic flow, but I know a lot of the downtown business has struggled since uptown developed. So, if you’re taking another thoroughfare away from them is that going to hurt downtown?” asked MacDonald.
That being said, he added, more development is generally only ever a good thing for local retailers.
“Development is good. Change can be good,” he said.
So what now?
Ultimately, it will be up to city council to decide when, or if, the East-West Connector will become a reality.
To date, there has been little talk about the project around the council chambers as the current crop of councillors, who were sworn in a little more than a year ago, have been focusing their attention elsewhere.
But city staff are hoping to keep it on council’s radar – if for no other reason than the hope that it won’t take another 18 years for the project to get some traction.