A report to Windsor City Council Monday night recommends the city move up its timeline for major improvements on Banwell Road.
Temporary improvements for the stretch between Tecumseh Road East and Mulberry Road, including more street lights and work up to Palmetto Street, are in the budget for next year.
Banwell Road and E.C. Row Expressway is already one of the city's busiest and most accident-prone intersections, and traffic along the road is only expected to increase.
Construction on a roundabout at Banwell and Mulberry is also in the works. The city hired a firm to design it last fall and work on that could start in 2021. While that is anticipated to improve traffic flow, City Engineer Mark Winterton told BlackburnNews.com last September it would be just one piece in a far more extensive project.
"The issues related to E.C. Row at Banwell will require a grade separation," he said at the time. "That's to the magnitude of $30 million."
A grade separation is still years off, but the report by the administration recommends other projects be moved up, including reconstruction Banwell between Tecumseh Road East and Mulberry Road.
If councillors decided to revise the schedule, the road could be torn up between Tecumseh Road and Palmetto Street next year. Design work on the remaining stretch to Mulberry would be ready when funding becomes available.
"The risk to continue with the original schedule of design and construction as described in the 2019 Capital Budget would be the delay in improvements to Banwell from Tecumseh to Mulberry until after 2026," read the report. "To reduce the risk, city council is being asked to pre-approve the RFP awards and pre-commit future funding to the Banwell Infrastructure Improvement project."
Moving ahead with the project is expected to cost $6.4 million.
