Charlottetown plans 'bold reimagination' of University Avenue 

Nick Tweel is excited about plans to overhaul University Avenue in Charlottetown, one of the busiest corridors in the city. 

Tweel was born and raised on the street and his family has been operating a business there for more than 70 years. 

"They're taking into consideration better lighting, more visible crosswalks and a nice path that's going to go up one end of the avenue to the other and it's really going to help people use the avenue a lot more like it should be as a gateway to downtown Charlottetown," said Tweel.

The city held an open house Tuesday night to unveil its University Avenue Master Plan — a plan it describes as a "bold reimagination." The section of road includes Belvedere Avenue, near the Superstore, to Euston Street, next to Invesco.

Anywhere from 14,000 to 25,000 cars use the road every day, depending on the time of the year.

'Give it a fresh look'

Scott Adams, manager of public works with the City of Charlottetown, said the plan's goal is to improve safety and traffic flow, add an active transportation lane, and make the street look better, by adding more green space and trees.

"One of the big goals is to install a multi-use pathway on the west side of University Avenue and the goal for that is to get the cyclists, give them an avenue where they can feel comfortable outside of the driving lanes to cycle," said Adams.

"This area hasn't seen a lot of work in a number of years. We'd like to give it a fresh look while also improving all the infrastructure that we have on the roadway."

The nearly 200-page document lays out the costs — more than $14.5 million.

But Adams said a lot has changed since the document was prepared in March 2021, and due to inflation he expects the actual costs to be much higher. He said the project will be phased in, with plans to start with changes at University and Belvedere down to Nassau Street.

'Buildings are dingy'

"We could be upwards in the $16-$17-million at the end of the day," he said. "Until we get into that detailed design, we don't truly know what we're getting into just yet."  

Mark Nicoll, who lives on Pond Street said he likes the plan, including the right-turn lanes and the active transportation lane. He said the avenue needs a facelift. 

"We live at Pond and say from Pond to Euston, the sidewalks are rough, the buildings are dingy, it's not a pleasant walk or cycle," he said.

The biggest changes will be at University and Belvedere, which the report says has more collisions than any other intersection in the city.

Adams said the plan for that section includes the addition of right-turn lanes, a centre median down a portion of the avenue to the RCMP headquarters to prevent left turns, and a "fully actuated signalized intersection" in front of Indigo that will line up with the RCMP's headquarters across the street. 

'It's taken some time'

There will also be a new set of lights installed at University Avenue and Pond Street.

The city hopes it can bury some of its power poles and lines as part of this project. 

Charlottetown Mayor Philip Brown said the plan has been talked about since he was first elected as a councillor more than 20 years ago. 

"It's a big project, it's a huge project," said Brown.

"You have a lot of commercial businesses, you have homes, you have a number of streets that intersect with this University Avenue section from those two points so yeah, it's taken some time."  

Brown said nothing will take place until residents have had their say. He said the city will take all the input into consideration before a final plan is put in place.

'It should be a real focal point'

"We're not going to rush into it," he said.

The city will continue to accept emailed input for the next couple of weeks. 

Tweel said he is hopeful city council will approve the project and get the work done as soon as possible.

"Charlottetown's a beautiful place and this is the first thing that people see when they come into the downtown core so it should be a real focal point."