Severity of gridlock at southeast 4-way stop spurred its removal

Residents in the Maple neighbourhood are celebrating after the city removed a stop sign causing traffic tie-ups. CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson reports.

A city councillor says quick work by crews to remove a new four-way stop in southeast Edmonton that was greatly increasing drivers’ commute times came as a result of the severity of the impact and the simplicity of the solution.

Jo-Anne Wright said workers were already on the case when she got in touch with the city department in charge of installing the signs at an intersection on Maple Road and 12 Street after she received hundreds of complaints that they were quadrupling commuting times.

The city confirms there is no “complaint threshold” that would trigger immediate action.

“When I did contact them Monday morning, they were on it right away, realizing the impact on the community,” Wright, who represents Ward Tsspomitapi, told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday afternoon.

Workers had installed the four-way stop on Friday. Maple Road is the only paved street into and out of the Maple neighbourhood, which is bounded by Anthony Henday Drive to the east, Whitemud Drive to the west and a railway line to the west. Residents can use a gravel road to get out of the neighbourhood to the south, but it’s of the ‘washing board’ variety and isn’t lighted.

Wright says she is still in talks with city staff about paving that road, West Railway Street, to lighten Maple Road’s traffic burden.

The city says the four-way was put in because drivers had asked for a safer way to turn onto Maple Road.

Jessica Lamarre, the City of Edmonton’s director of safe mobility, told CTV News Edmonton in a statement that her team “used engineering guidelines and the results of a site assessment of traffic operations at the intersection prior to implementing the new measures.”

“Based on the assessment completed before installation, the anticipated impacts were considered acceptable,” she said.

“After installation, however, it became clear that the effect of the traffic flow in the Maple community was greater than expected. Maple has limited access points, and the additional delays contributed to congestion above what was anticipated.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson