LETTER: Province should act fast on Orchard Point lights - OrilliaMatters

OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at dave@orilliamatters.com. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following is an open letter to PC Leader Doug Ford, Simcoe North MPP Jill Dunlop and Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney from a resident who lives at Orchard Point.
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I am writing this letter to draw attention to a very dangerous intersection where Orchard Point Road meets Atherley Road/Highway 12 in Orillia.

Orchard Point was selected for residential intensification by the City of Orillia in the last planning cycle. This is in keeping with the province’s intensification goals required by the province for undertaking by the city.

Orchard Point is a narrow point of land near the Narrows where Lake Simcoe meets Lake Couchiching. There is only one road (Orchard Point Road) that leads off the point onto Highway 12 and there are no alternatives unless you arrive and depart by boat. There are no traffic lights at the intersection and turning left-bound onto the highway is highly risky. Why is it so risky?

1. Vehicles come over the bridge at highway speeds and are obscured by the hill of the bridge until they are very close to the intersection.
2. The speed limit is 60 km/h but the average speed checked over a one-hour period off-peak on a weekday is 77 km/h. Many vehicles exceed 100 km/h, and some vehicles are in stunt driving territory exceeding 130 km/h.
3. Three commercial businesses on the south side adjacent to the intersection exit both north- and southbound using three different exits (Kawartha Dairy, A&W, Ultramar gas station).
4. On average, over a one-hour period, there are approximately 70 vehicles heading southbound on Highway 12 from just these three businesses alone.
5. On the opposite side of the highway there is a strip mall with two exits and Crate’s Lake Country marina with one exit. Vehicles head both north- and southbound from these businesses as well.
6. On Orchard Point there are two condominium towers (one nine-storey and one six-storey) totalling 88 residences, there is phase 3 and 4 of Sophie’s Landing (two-storey condominiums) totalling 44 residences currently under development with occupancy to begin this fall, there is Mariner’s Pier currently under construction totalling 42 residences (three-storey bungalow townhouses), there are 37 single original family homes on the point and, last but not least, there is a new eight-storey high-rise condominium undergoing approval for 44 residences called Club 888.
7. So, you have a total of 255 residences occupied or being built on Orchard Point modestly representing approximately 460 vehicles that all must exit onto busy Highway 12/Atherley Road from one road without traffic lights.
8. In addition, there are currently 12 pieces of heavy equipment involved in construction that get floated on and off the point by tractor-trailer. There are two school buses twice per day that come in and out of Orchard Point (not to mention the constant coming and going of cement trucks, dump trucks, service vehicles, construction worker cars and building supply trucks).
9. Residents on the point have no sidewalks and to cross the highway to get to the park area or local businesses they must walk half a kilometre along a paved shoulder on Highway 12 which is not plowed in the winter time to cross at the lights at Invermara Court.

At times it becomes impossible to make a left-hand turn onto Highway 12 and most vehicles turn right and cross the Atherley Narrows bridge and turn around at the Tim Hortons at Atherley to then turn around and head back across the bridge toward Orillia.

Our mayor of Orillia has kindly offered to the province that the City of Orillia pay for the traffic lights at the intersection to expedite things, even though the responsibility lies with the province. Communication regarding this matter with Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney and our local representative, Jill Dunlop, seems to fall on deaf ears and we understand the plan for traffic lights is not until 2028.

There have been several accidents over the last year at the intersection that I am aware of and it’s only a matter of time before someone dies at the intersection. It is undoubtedly the most dangerous intersection in Orillia with no alternative routing to avoid the treacherous exit from the high-density point of land.

I am writing this letter out of desperation.

Please, Doug Ford, Caroline Mulroney and Jill Dunlop, do something to break this bureaucratic deadlock in the Ministry of Transportation before someone dies. This should be a win-win situation for residents, businesses and it could have the added benefit of slowing the traffic on Atherley Road/ Highway 12 a bit (hopefully, to the speed limit) as they enter the City of Orillia.

Our only other option would be to stage a peaceful, legal protest along both sides of the highway at the intersection to draw attention to our plight, an option we would prefer not to take unless it is absolutely necessary.

Mark Coles
Orillia
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LETTER: Province should act fast on Orchard Point lights - OrilliaMatters
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