The City of Duncan will try once again to attain funding to construct the municipality’s first roundabout.
Council decided at its meeting on Sept. 8 to apply for a $2.1-million grant from the federal Strategic Priorities Fund 2025 (Canada Community Building Fund) for the $2.65-million project that would see a roundabout constructed at the intersection of Government, College, and Cairnsmore streets, adjacent to the Fishbowl Cafe.
The project is intended to improve traffic circulation and safety at the busy intersection.
If the grant application is successful, the city will commit to funding $106,000 towards utilities upgrades at the intersection and $441,000 for roadworks, including any cost overruns that may occur.
Brian Murphy, Duncan’s director of public works and engineering, said in a staff report that the current intersection is complex and a less than ideal configuration, with significant traffic volumes arriving from four directions separated at odd angles requiring three separate traffic signal phases that operate sequentially in response to traffic and pedestrian demand.
“Each of these three signal phases has a minimum green time, a yellow clearance time and an all-red clearance time,” he said. “These clearance delays are necessary to prevent serious right-angle or head-on collisions. However, they also add to significant delays for traffic movement through the intersection.”
It’s not the first time the municipality has applied for grants to help pay for the long-delayed project.
A grant application for approximately $1.74 million for the Cairnsmore roundabout also from the Strategic Priorities Fund grant program which was submitted in 2022 was unsuccessful, as was an application for an almost $1.3 million grant for the project from the Canada Infrastructure Program in 2021.
The costs of the project have increased over the years, with the total project estimated at $2.3 million in 2022.
