Project update March 1, 2024
The City of Waterloo and its engineering consultant, WalterFedy, would like to provide an update regarding the reconstruction of Union Street East (King to Moore). The most notable change is the removal of separated bike lanes from the design.
The City’s Transportation Master Plan recommended that separated bike lanes be implemented on Union Street East; however, there are numerous challenges to implementing them such as space constraints, grading and utility relocation. These challenges have led to increasing projected costs for the project.
Most recently, a significant challenge was identified regarding overhead hydro lines. Addressing this would increase project costs by a further 30 per cent. Given the escalating costs and uncertainty, separated bike lanes will not be implemented during the reconstruction of Union Street.
This does not mean the City has abandoned plans for separated bike lanes on Union Street. The Official Plan specifies higher density and a wider right-of-way on Union Street. As properties on Union redevelop, the City will acquire more property at no cost, which will alleviate most current challenges and permit separated bike lanes in the future. This will also mean installation of the bike lanes will line up more closely with the installation of bike lanes on Union Boulevard in Kitchener (i.e. Union, west of King Street) and Union Street east of Moore Avenue in Waterloo.
The change in design does not affect some of the other improvements planned, such as:
- Alternate route for Spurline Trail to allow crossing at the traffic signals at Union and Moore.
- Narrowed roadway for traffic calming.
- Improved sidewalks, including removal of utilities poles from sidewalk and removal of driveway ramping from sidewalk.
- New boulevard space for increased physical separation between vehicles and pedestrians, snow storage in winter, and space for waste bin placement so they don’t obstruct sidewalks.
- Pedestrian crossing at Herbert Street.
The re-design will reduce the amount of property acquisition required, although some property will still be required to remove overhead utility poles from sidewalks.
The tentative new schedule is:
- Re-design and property acquisition in 2024
- Phase 1 (King to Willow) – Construction 2025
- Phase 2 (Willow to Moore) – Construction 2026
The exact limits, and which phase will be constructed first, are subject to change as the re-design progresses.
