Ask anyone who lives along Highway 20 and they’ll tell you that excessive speed is a safety concern along the stretch of road heading west out of Fonthill.
In a recent letter to the editor at PelhamToday, reader Cathy Thompson of Fenwick pinpointed a particularly hazardous section of the roadway—the corner of Highway 20 and Balfour Street.
“I am writing to express grave concerns regarding how often accidents occur at the intersection of Balfour and Highway 20 — a very serious one happened on Monday involving a truck and a car,” she wrote. “Very often I have witnessed cars, pickups, Mack trucks and transport trucks flying down the hill traveling westward at alarming speeds, causing some near-misses and collisions. Throw in poor road conditions and it’s exponentially worse. It’s often nearly impossible for school buses to make that turn.”
Thompson suggested a traffic light at this intersection as a speed-calming measure, and to make the turn off of and onto Balfour less dangerous.
Chris Ventura, a Balfour Street resident in Fenwick, wholeheartedly agrees.
“There are farmers on both sides of Highway 20 who have slow-moving farm machinery crossing this intersection, and a regional bicycle route crosses here as well. There are a lot of cyclists that are in danger of being hit by fast-moving traffic. I’ve seen vehicles passing in the turning lane. Balfour is a major street for people living in North Pelham and also in Cherry Ridge in Fenwick, connecting with Highway 20. A traffic light won’t solve everything, but it's going to get people thinking when they see the light, and hopefully slowing as they come down the hill, especially in winter. And let’s face it, with all the housing development going on, Highway 20 is only going to get busier.”
Diana Huson, Pelham’s Regional Councillor, took the matter to Regional headquarters recently, inquiring if the intersection qualifies for a traffic light.
“I was told not to get my hopes up,” she said. “A study had to be conducted, and if it was deemed an excessive speed situation, the NRPS would likely get involved.”
The study was obviously fast-tracked, because it didn’t take more than two weeks before a positive decision came back.
“Provided there are no budget hold-ups, we could see a light at Balfour and Highway 20 in 2024,” said Huson. “There will be public communications issued once the project is approved and construction is nearing.”
Frank Tassone, the Director of Transportation Services for Niagara Region, said that the Region has put the intersection of Balfour and Regional Road 20 through its Signal Warrant process, which looks at various parameters of the intersection and assigns a score, which is then compared against required values to determine if a signal is warranted.
“The warrant process for that intersection did trip the warrant, indicating that a signal is now a viable option,” he said. “Over the coming months, staff will design the signal and any related civil works required. Once the design phase of the project is completed, it will move into construction, which will be dependent on available capital funds allocated through our annual capital budget process.”
As far as cost is concerned, Tassone said that a signal could cost anywhere from $750,000 to $1 million dollars.
Also noteworthy on Highway 20 is the Red-Light Camera (RLC), an automated system that detects and captures images of vehicles entering an intersection in spite of the traffic signal being red, being installed at the intersection with Victoria Street (Regional Road 24) later this year, yet another effort to make the roadway safer.
