A day after CTV News shed light on a current downtown beautification project that’s already been damaged; the department behind the design spoke to CTV News about the design, and possible changes that could be made.
On Thursday, a check-in on the Capital Boulevard beautification project, along 108 Street between Macewan University and the Legislature showed a number of three-foot tall granite posts that had been installed on either side of the street, had been damaged by drivers.
The city said a total of 86 dotted the street, and about 20 of them had been damaged – at least chipped, at worst, knocked over completely.
A number of people said Thursday their issue lay with the new design not including curbs, making it easier for drivers to end up on the sidewalk, striking the posts.
“It’s different, and there has to be some adjustments made by both ourselves and the public that travels up and down that street,” Urban Planning Manager Peter Ohm said.
Ohm’s department is overseeing the project, and he said it’s too soon to tell if the posts won’t ultimately work on the street.
“Is there anything else we might want to demarcate?” Ohm said. “Including that reflective material, to say this is the end of the vehicular part of the street, and this is the beginning of the pedestrian part of the street.
“It might mean moving them; it might mean doing something else with the material.”
The issue in question isn’t new, near 108 Street, people who work along 104 Street see cars hit the metal posts installed along that roadway.
However, those posts usually end up damaging the car, and don’t sustain much visible damage.
Allison Maclean works on the street, and she said she’s seen them seriously damaged in the past.
“It got tipped right sideways,” Maclean said. “I saw it one other time in the last few years.”
Regardless, the urban planning department said such pedestrian-friendly designs work in other municipalities – and they hope to add more in Edmonton.
With files from David Ewasuk
