A busy east-west corridor between London and Woodstock, Ont. is about to get an upgrade. Work gets underway later this summer on the Thamesford corridor improvement project. Oxford County Warden Marcus Ryan says it will make the stretch of Oxford County Road 2 safer for all road users. “That traffic situation needs to be managed better. Not only for the traffic moving through, but for the residents that live there,” said Ryan. Proposed changes include a two-way left turn lane and the removal of on-street parking. The county says there will also be safety improvements for pedestrians, including new traffic signals, accessibility upgrades, and street lighting improvements. But not everyone is convinced the upgraded corridor will be safer. Thamesford resident Noah Witte is behind a petition calling on Oxford County to put the brakes on the project until a number of concerns are addressed. “I do think that traffic needs to be mitigated in a number of ways,” Witte conceded. “There’s just better ways to go about that, I think, such as a bypass for trucks. I know that’s expensive, but there are a number of other ways that the town could look towards slowing down traffic without taking out the character of the actual town.” The county says it’s making the changes in response to increased traffic volumes from ongoing and future development in the area, and that the improvements are based on recommendations from a comprehensive corridor study. “A lot of that traffic is commercial traffic, which in general is good. They’re bringing goods and services from places that we all work and shop. But yeah, it means a lot of truck traffic,” said Ryan. “And in the village of Thamesford, kids are trying to get from their house over to the pool, or from their house to the school, or whatever. They need to be able to do that safely, and we need to do things to that road so that people can move around that village safely.” Ryan said the project goes to tender in August, with construction beginning in September. Work is expected to be complete this November.
