Item - 2022.IE31.25

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommend that:

1. City Council direct the General Manager Transportation Services and Chief Engineer and Executive Director, Engineering and Construction Services to resume the design work for the fully funded signalized pedestrian crossing and sidewalk at De Boers Drive and Allen Road and to report back to City Council at its meeting scheduled for July 19th, 2022 with a timeline for tendering and construction.

In 2021 the City received a Section 37 payment of $800,000 from the development application known as 1100 Sheppard Avenue West.  These funds were paid by the applicant in advance of above grade construction permitting, under the expectation that City staff would deliver a signalized pedestrian crossing and connecting sidewalk at the intersection of De Boers Drive and Allen Road, before the end of 2022.

The applicant for 1100 Sheppard Avenue West provided the City with design and engineering drawings to help expedite the review and delivery of the signalized crossing and sidewalk. Traffic lights and a signalized north-south pedestrian crossing already exist at this intersection. The supplied drawings specifically refer to the creation of an east-west signalized pedestrian crossing at the corners of Allen Road and De Boers Drive and a connecting sidewalk running south along the east side of Allen Road to the public Toronto Transit Commission plaza, located at the northeast  corner of Allen Road and Sheppard Avenue West. A preliminary cost figure prepared by the applicant's consultant estimated the design and construction costs to total $250,000 to be subtracted from the aforementioned received Section 37 funds. The remainder of the funds ($550,000) will be dedicated towards revitalizing the De Boers Dr. public parkette, located west of the future crossing.

From September 2021 to the First Quarter of 2022, Engineering and Transportation Services staff worked on reviewing the design and engineering drawings supplied by the applicant with the goal of tendering and delivering the crossing and sidewalk before 2023. However, in March 2022, our office was notified that the delivery of the crossing and sidewalk, although fully funded, was not a priority at this point in time and the design work was to be stopped.

Based on the above information, I am then requesting Transportation and Engineering staff to resume the design work for a fully funded signalized pedestrian crossing and sidewalk at De Boers Drive and Allen Road and report back to the next City Council meeting with a timeline for tendering and construction.