Westridge Road upgrade planned

By Sean Feagan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Town of Strathmore is planning to revitalize Westridge Road and is looking for resident feedback to help select a design.

Located north of and parallel to the Trans-Canada Highway on Strathmore’s west side, Westridge Road is an important “visual gateway” for the town.

“It is important, in my opinion, to give visitors and possible investors (or) future homeowners a good first impression,” said Strathmore town Councillor Bob Sobol, who chairs the town’s traffic advisory committee.

Besides providing much-needed upgrades, the goal is to make the road more pedestrian friendly. “Residents are often seen walking along this road, and sidewalks will make this a safer area to walk, bike, run, etc.”

The town has hired Allnorth Consultants Ltd., an engineering and construction services consulting company, to design the water line, sanitary mains and carriageway upgrades. George Harris Collaborative Inc., an urban design and landscape architecture firm, has been tasked with designing the pathways and landscaping.

Two streetscape designs have been proposed. The first option features two lanes of traffic separated from a 3.5-metre multimodal pathway by a two-metre landscape strip with trees. An additional 2.2-metre landscape strip would be located to the north of this pathway. The second option features (from south to north) a road with a temporary stopping zone adjacent to a two-lane road that is immediately adjacent to a two-metre pathway/sidewalk, with a 2.7-metre landscape strip adjacent to the north.

Option one provides a wider pathway that would be separated from road traffic by a landscaped area. However, this would mean there would be no room on the roadway to allow for temporary stopping by vehicles for loading and unloading of deliveries, which is provided in the second option.

The town is looking for resident feedback as to which design should be selected. Design schematics and a survey is available through the revitalization page on the town’s website (strathmore.ca/en/news/westridge-road-revitalization.aspx), available until Nov. 15.