Detour routes during Warsaw Swing Bridge closure

Peterborough, ON - The Warsaw Swing Bridge over the Trent-Severn Waterway on Parkhill Road East, between Armour Road and Television Road, is closed for Parks Canada’s replacement of the bridge from October 5, 2020 until spring 2021. Access for local residents and businesses on Parkhill Road will remain open.
Signs are posted for detour routes to assist motorists with navigating to alternative crossing points over the Trent-Severn Waterway canal during the closure.
There are two signed detour routes. The main detour route for eastbound traffic and all trucks follows University Road, Nassau Mills Road, and Armour Road. A secondary detour route for Westbound traffic follows Television Road, Lansdowne Street, and Ashburnham Drive.
Residents and visitors are encouraged to follow signed detour routes.
The City appreciates that major infrastructure work, such as the replacement of a bridge, can cause disruptions and inconveniences for residents and businesses. While these investments are needed to maintain infrastructure, the City considers various scenarios to minimize that disruption, when possible.
Parks Canada’s replacement of the Parkhill Road East bridge over the Trent-Severn Waterway is an important investment in a major transportation route. The bridge handles traffic volumes of about 10,000 vehicles a day. The temporary closure of the route during the bridge replacement means that traffic needs to be re-routed.
As part of the detours, only local traffic is permitted on MacFarlane Avenue, Old Norwood Road and Maniece Avenue between Television Road and Ashburnham Drive.
The reasoning for limiting traffic on the three streets noted above is:
- The streets are not designed to handle the volume of traffic that is experienced on Parkhill Road East. Putting that volume of traffic along those stretches of streets would create safety concerns, including at intersections where turning movements with that volume of traffic could create an unsafe situation.
- Turning movements on Television Road at the intersection for these streets, if they were used as detour routes, would lead to backed up traffic on Television Road and create dangerous situations for motorists based on the volume of traffic experienced on Television Road.
- Detour traffic using those three streets would likely funnel to the one-lane crossings at McFarlane Street and the Lift Lock tunnel, backing up traffic and creating an unsafe situation at those one-lane crossings.
- There is a school zone on McFarlane Street, where some of the traffic would be funneled to if the detours included the one-lane McFarlane Street bridge.
There are three alternative two-lane crossings that can accommodate the increased traffic that are within about five kilometres of the temporarily closed bridge – Nassau Mills Road, Maria Street, and Lansdowne Street.
The City appreciates that the detours create an inconvenience for some residents as they need to go to an alternative crossing point; however, detour routes were decided after reviewing the affected traffic flows, the integrity of the infrastructure, and safety considerations.
The City will continue to monitor operations on the area road network and on Lansdowne Street during the detour to facilitate traffic flows.
Average travel times to follow the posted detour routes starting from Parkhill Road at Television Road to Parkhill Road at Armour Road is 10 minutes to 15 minutes during peak times.
Signage has been posted to direct traffic to detour routes and to make motorists aware that Maniece Avenue, Old Norwood Road and MacFarlane Avenue between Television Road and Ashburnham Drive are only open to local traffic. After initial education efforts by police to inform motorists that the streets aren’t open to through traffic, enforcement has happened under the failure to obey a posted regulatory sign.
The City has explored various alternatives to mitigate concerns related to safety and infrastructure, including ideas offered by residents.
Options considered | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Parks Canada has asked anyone with questions about any Trent-Severn Waterway construction project to send an email to Ont.TrentSevern@pc.gc.ca and include the project name in the subject heading. Parks Canada can provide information on the bridge replacement and the Parkhill Road closure. For questions about the closure of MacFarlane Avenue, Old Norwood Road and Maniece Avenue to through traffic, please contact the City of Peterborough.
Information on the Warsaw Swing Bridge replacement can be found at www.pc.gc.ca/TSWinfrastructure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Parkhill Road closed at the Trent-Severn Waterway? |
Parks Canada is installing a new bridge over the Trent-Severn Waterway canal. City staff have been working with Parks Canada on this project but cannot influence the timing of the closures nor the scope of work for the project. Staff have worked with Parks Canada to develop a Traffic Management Plan considering a number of, sometimes competing, factors. |
How is traffic being handled through the closure period? |
There are over 10,000 vehicles per day that typically use Parkhill Road, many of them heavy trucks. Two formal detour routes have been installed to accommodate the detoured traffic, one to the north via Nassau Mills Road/Armour Road and one to the south via Television Road / Lansdowne Street. |
Why are MacFarlane Avenue, Old Norwood Road and Maniece Avenue (between Television Road and Ashburnham Drive) closed to through traffic? |
Local traffic and emergency vehicles can continue to access properties along these roads, but through traffic isn’t permitted. As part of the traffic management plan, MacFarlane Avenue, Old Norwood Road and Maniece Avenue (between Television Road and Ashburnham Drive) have been closed to through traffic, at the recommendation of City staff. Staff reviewed a number of factors related to Parks Canada’s traffic control and detour route proposal in recommending the closures:
The City will continue to monitor operations on the area road network. |
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For additional details, members of the media are invited to contact the undersigned:
Brendan Wedley, Manager of Communication Services
City of Peterborough
705-742-77777 ext. 1636