Sometimes, we can say “better late than never.”
Other times, we need to ask, “what’s taking so long?” — as with the City of Charlottetown’s plans to build a sidewalk on Kensington Road near the Eastlink Centre.
Last week, the city’s public works committee provided an update on the project. The tender to do the work is out, and the estimated cost is around $150,000 — although there is some back and forth with the lowest bidder to change the scope of the project and lower the cost.
This all sounds good, but let’s not forget it’s been since December that Red Shores built a gate between the parking lot and the front entrance of the Eastlink Centre. In doing so, a main route for fans going to the Eastlink Centre for events, such as hockey and basketball games, was blocked.
People have other options for accessing the centre. They can walk in a different direction through the Red Shores parking lot and enter the arena through the trackside entrance. They can, and do, park in the Park Street parking lot and walk up to the rear entrance.
The least safe and most likely routes involve crossing Kensington Road twice and then going into the arena’s front entrance or walking on the path where the sidewalk is eventually going to be built and bypassing the gate. The city is also planning to ask Charlottetown police to park a vehicle by the crosswalk with its lights activated to improve safety during game days.
Originally, the idea was to have the new sidewalk built before hockey season started.
Well, that didn’t happen. The only visible work done so far is two orange lines painted on the path outlining the new sidewalk.
The city has been doing sidewalk work all summer. They’re all important projects. But given the high volume of pedestrian traffic during games, and the fact that this has been on the radar for 10 months, this project should have been at the top of the list and done well before the start of hockey season. It’s baffling to try and understand why the city has dragged its heels on this project.
Tonight is the third Charlottetown Islanders home game. The city says that work on the new sidewalk is expected to begin in two to three weeks, and work could be done by the end of November. By that time, 14 Islanders home games will have passed.
That’s 14 times that people, including young families, will be inconvenienced or putting their safety at risk simply to watch a hockey game.
