There should soon be a fourth traffic light intersection in Stephenville.
That’s because the Stephenville town council approved the award of a tender at its regular general meeting on Thursday for traffic light installation at the Queen Street/Prince Rupert Drive/Minnesota Drive intersection.
The contract has gone to the lowest bidder, Industrial Commercial Maintenance Ltd. at a cost of $260,893.60.
The busy intersection where two wide roads (Prince Rupert Drive and Queen Street) meet has been talked about for some time with previous town councils deciding on other measures instead of a traffic light system.
Flashing red lights, oversized stop signs and stop signs with flashing lights were all installed at the intersection.
However, when the new town council took office a little more than a year ago, a top order of business for some members of council was to have a full traffic lighting system installed at the location, which has an A & W Restaurant next to it and Stephenville Middle School.
Mayor Tom Rose said this shows the commitment that council has toward safety in the community and he feels this will make the intersection safer for residents of the town and visitors alike.
Coun. Mark Felix said council had planned to have this done earlier but ended up leveraging half the cost through provincial government funding.
“We had to slow down to make sure we didn’t get ahead of the grant application. Any time we can leverage money from an outside source we’ll wait a little while,” he said.
It’s hoped the work on the installation of this traffic light system will start soon, now that the tender has been awarded.
