Looking for some cross walks that won't fade away

The Cross walk at Third West and Seventh Street. like the Majority of those
along that main traffic route in the city has all but vanished.

Councillor Wade Niesh is looking for some counsel from city staff on the state of the city maintained crosswalks in the city, noting on Monday night that in some cases, the paint used last year for crosswalk marking has all but disappeared from view on the  majority of the city's streets.

The situation is, as Councillor Niesh notes somewhat concerning, with block after block of Third Avenue West featuring crosswalks that are for the most part not marked by paint.

Third Avenue West and Ninth Street offers up another example of
the issue of fading cross walks in the city

The same can be said across the city, with major connecting roads and even some of the lesser travelled side streets featuring fading or faded paint jobs from last year.

Sixth Avenue East on the way to Seal Cove, another area of the city
where cross walk paint has all but vanished from view.

By comparison, the crosswalks along Second Avenue West, the provincially maintained highway, have held up significantly better over the course of the recent winter months, with few sections of the busy thoroughfare stripped of the paint.

One block over from Third, the main thoroughfare of Second Avenue West
still has clearly marked cross walks on the majority of crossings

Mr. Niesh has asked City Staff to investigate the situation further, wondering if the city had been forced to use a lesser grade of paint or if the industry or province had mandated a specific supplier for last years paint project.

"I found that the crosswalks this year have just disappeared, and I know it's supposedly something to do with the more environmentally safe paint, and I want to know if this was something that was a choice by our city or if this is something that is being forced on the whole industry "

Corinne Bomben, the City's Chief Financial Officer provided for the staff response, noting that she would look into issue and report back to Council.

You can review Councillor Niesh's crosswalk concerns from the City's Video Archive.


His contribution to the discussion starts at the thirty four  minute mark.




In recent weeks, City Council has put a fair bit of attention towards safety issues related to crosswalks and traffic flow in the downtown area, mostly focusing on the nature of inattentive drivers and pedestrians and the need for better signage and other indicators for crosswalk safety.

For more items of note related to Monday's Council session see our Council Timeline feature here.

More items of note from Monday's session can be examined from our archive page for the Monday meeting here.

A wider overview of City Council discussion topics is available from our Council Discussion page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review