Charlottetown seeking input on new roads in West Royalty

The City of Charlottetown is seeking input from the public on a draft traffic design being created for the West Royalty area over the next two decades.

The West Royalty transportation master plan would see new roads phased in and some streets in the area expanded to five or six lanes.

"The goal with this traffic plan is to develop a plan for a road network to not only handle the current traffic need but future developments' needs," said Scott Adams, the manager of public works.

"We are growing both in population and in building density."

There's a number of new streets we expect to happen in the next 20 years.— Scott Adams, public works

The zone is bordered by the bypass, Mount Edward Road, North River Road and just south of the Charlottetown Mall.

According to Adams, during peak traffic around 9,000 vehicles currently pass through the area in an hour. He said he estimates it could be over 10,000 by 2031 and more than 11,000 by 2041. 

"Every year you keep seeing traffic increases," he said. 

'A number of new streets'

To construct the proposal, Adams said the city had to make assumptions about how the West Royalty area would develop based on, "what is known now and what is anticipated to happen over time."

The draft plan suggests extending Spencer Drive to connect with Mount Edward Road, creating a street near Princess Auto and adding an additional road to attach to Saint Dunstan Street — all by 2031.

For 2041, it includes creating two new streets — one street linking Malpeque Road and Capital Drive and another street linking St. Martha's Court with a street planned to loop around Princess Auto and Canadian Tire.

"There's a number of new streets we expect to happen in the next 20 years."

No date set for public meeting

As for public feedback, Adams said there is no set deadline yet. He said the hope is to eventually have a public meeting but there is no date scheduled, as it needs to fit into COVID-19 guidelines.

For the time being, he said questions and concerns can be emailed, mailed or dropped off at city hall. 

"Good or bad we want to hear about what everyone's concerned about."

And moving forward, Adams said the plan will be brought to city council and hopefully put in place for when developments begin. 

"Most of the roadways will start to be built when developers start developing their lands," he said.

"We want to do our legwork now so when developers do come to us we're ready to have those conversations and figure out how to make that road network work with their plans."

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