After a man was reportedly struck and killed in Oshawa, the area councillor has asked Metrolinx to provide safe access across the closed Simcoe Street South bridge over the Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) tracks.
“Many of us were hoping that this would not happen and it saddens us that it has. We had warned the elimination of safe crossings in the vicinity of this bridge replacement would lead to tragedy and sadly it has,” said Councillor Ward 5 Oshawa and Durham Council, Brian Nicholson.
“Numerous attempts to convince Metrolinx to provide additional safe access have been ignored. Perhaps now Metrolinx will take area resident concerns seriously,” he said.
The two-year closure of the bridge at Simcoe Street to make room for GO train traffic into the future Central Oshawa station, as well as bridge replacement work on Farewell Street to the east and the permanent closing of the Albert Street bridge in between has caused a level of traffic chaos and numerous accidents and near collisions in recent months as residents try to access the homes in the neighbouring communities, the councillor said.
He pointed out that Oshawa councillors have also been asking for a dual-purpose pedestrian/vehicular bridge in the city’s east end to replace the demolished Farewell bridge.
“Rebuilding the Farewell bridge to allow vehicular as well as pedestrian bridge is desirable from both an access and safety perspective,” Nicholson said.
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