Angeline Street to expand to five lanes near hospital
Plan raises questions for local businesses
Angeline Street North will be expanding from three lanes to five between Colborne Street and Kent Street. The proposed design will include a right turning lane, a centre left-turn lane and a median at the intersection of Angeline and Kent Streets.
An environmental assessment has just been completed and now the project is in a 30-day public review period, “after which a detailed design — which includes a traffic management and detour plan — will begin,” said Corby Purdy, manager of infrastructure design and construction.
With growth projected, it was part of the 2012 transportation master plan to have this done. The plan accounted for an increase of 100,000 residents by 2031. That would be a 33 per cent growth from population numbers seen in 2011.
In the project file report, it stated that if the street was left as is, by 2027 drivers would see upwards of a 58 second delay at the lights, and by 2051 that delay would turn into 4.5 minutes.
Dr. Mark Evans, owner of the Dentistry on Kent building, said he was first made aware of this project in February of 2019, but has been left with more questions than answers.
His biggest concern is how the entrances of the business will be affected, with one of them situated off Angeline. When he asked the city for clarification on whether or not they’ll lose the entrance, he’s so far received no response.
His daughter, Dr. Jacqueline Evans, owns the business and echo’s her fathers concerns. The likely design with a median, she says, will block left turns in and out of our entrance, making access much more difficult.
Evans said when they questioned planners about this, they were told their patients could just go past Kent to Roosevelt Street and then make their way back onto Kent, essentially forcing patients to go around the block.
In the plans they’ve seen there would also be a retaining wall put in, which would block their Kent Steet entrance. “They’ve been so focused on the Angeline Street entrance and…explaining what will happen with that. We don’t know if blocking the Kent Street entrance is an oversight, or if it’s actually going to be blocked,” Evans said.
“Then there’s the actual construction that scares us too, because of how disruptive that’s going to be,” Evans added.
Purdy said that efforts will be taken to reduce the effect on businesses. “The (project) report identifies mitigation measures such as maintaining access to adjacent properties, coordinating utility work in advance, adhering to noise bylaws, and staging construction to reduce traffic disruption.”
The pair are understanding that something has to be done to help traffic move faster, but they question if five lanes are necessary. “We understand the need for it. We see the traffic and know that the roads need to be widened. The amount of lanes seems excessive and the designs seem to limit the access to our building, which is detrimental to the business,” Evans said.
“I kind of feel like what they’re doing now is they’re going to take more land from us because it’s convenient. It’s not fair but if they work with us, maybe we can make it happen,” Mark said.
All they want is reassurance that their business won’t be heavily affected by these changes.
There currently isn’t a set date for construction to begin. More information will be given once the public review period is over on Dec. 13. Written comments can be submitted to the project team to Corby Purdy at or Alexander Wilkinson, consultation project manager at .
They always say businesses will be minimally impacted but that is NEVER the case. It’s always super inconvenient.
There is no more important municipally managed intersection in Kawartha Lakes than Kent St and Angeline St.
Uptown Lindsay, that area of Kent St from the Hospital west to Hwy 7 is the largest hub of commerce and services in Kawartha Lakes. The Angeline and Kent intersection is critcal for Paramedic Ambulance access to Ross Memorial Hospital and with housing developments north on Angeline, Colborne and Thunderbridge, this intersection is simply going to get busier.
While this article talks about the number of lanes, the signalization (traffic lights) of the intersection, whether this intersection is electronically coordinated with other nearby intersections to provide the green light flow, how the advance greens for turning work and whether this interection has battery back-up power, an uninteruptible power source that keeps traffic lights working during power failures, are all critical design choices that should be made for this critically important municipal intersection.
Lets hope that city of Kawartha Lakes get this done right. We’ll be living with it for the next 25-30 years.
We need this intersection to be highly efficient.
Finish all the other intrusive projects first, before starting anything as monumental as that.
I just moved behind the hospital on Chadwin Dr. and really concerned how this construction will affect how we can get in and out of our street onto Angeline. We can barely cross the street as it is to get to the Giant Tiger due to traffic. A crosswalk there is absolutely needed 1st before you add more traffic. There are so many seniors in these townhouses that its unsafe to cross there. Let’s think about this safety feature 1st. Also the fact that people will probably use our trees to avoid traffic, they already do at ridiculous speed. Cameras or speed bumps should be mandatory as well. Thank you!
Let’s hope it’s not the same company that has be 12 years paving highway 7 🤣