08-11-2018, 09:55 PM
I hope they at least keep Gaukel open to pedestrians (they've already close the site side of Charles to pedestrians) as there are enough full time closures already inconveniencing pedestrians.
I know there are permit fees for this kind of closure in Kitchener, but are there other fees like they have in other cities for street occupancy (e.g. Toronto) that might encourage the limiting the closure to the shortest time possible? Even the City of Waterloo charges $29/lane/day for minor roads, $125/lane/day for major roads, and $250 per month when it affects sidewalks and pathways (which itself is revealing - lane closures are charged by the day, but sidewalk closures only by the month; you can inconvenience pedestrians for 29 days without paying a fee, but inconvenience a single lane of a road for a day and its a minimum of $29 a day plus the $123 application fee despite that the application for states that "Maintain safe and convenient passage for all pedestrians through or around the work site").
20-Aug-2018 to 31-Dec-2019 is 499 days. Even at the low end of the Waterloo rates $14,000 seems like a small price to pay given the total costs to everyone's time/fuel over that time period resulting from the detour.
(Unrelated note, I noticed that the sidewalk snow clearing fees for Kitchener are in that document and are as follows (per linear ft):
King St. $7.91
Other Downtown Streets and gov't properties $2.40
Crosswalk clearing (schools, etc.) $3.12)
I know there are permit fees for this kind of closure in Kitchener, but are there other fees like they have in other cities for street occupancy (e.g. Toronto) that might encourage the limiting the closure to the shortest time possible? Even the City of Waterloo charges $29/lane/day for minor roads, $125/lane/day for major roads, and $250 per month when it affects sidewalks and pathways (which itself is revealing - lane closures are charged by the day, but sidewalk closures only by the month; you can inconvenience pedestrians for 29 days without paying a fee, but inconvenience a single lane of a road for a day and its a minimum of $29 a day plus the $123 application fee despite that the application for states that "Maintain safe and convenient passage for all pedestrians through or around the work site").
20-Aug-2018 to 31-Dec-2019 is 499 days. Even at the low end of the Waterloo rates $14,000 seems like a small price to pay given the total costs to everyone's time/fuel over that time period resulting from the detour.
(Unrelated note, I noticed that the sidewalk snow clearing fees for Kitchener are in that document and are as follows (per linear ft):
King St. $7.91
Other Downtown Streets and gov't properties $2.40
Crosswalk clearing (schools, etc.) $3.12)
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.