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Nanaimo is aiming to have work completed before next spring to improve safety at five intersections by extending curbs and installing flashing beacons.

The city is still in the design process for the intersections, Jamie Rose, municipal transportation manager, said Monday.

Council voted unanimously last month in favour of spending $300,000 in unallocated pedestrian funds to upgrade the intersections.

The work is a continuation of the city’s effort to make the community more walkable.

Front Street at Port Drive will see a $110,000 improvement with rapidly flashing beacons and curb extensions. The relocation of the downtown transit exchange has added to increased numbers of pedestrians in that area.

Coun. Erin Hemmens welcomed plans to improve safety at that location, saying people frequently dash across the road.

This site falls within the focus of the city’s downtown mobility hub, aimed at developing a safe, accessible and inter-connected transportation network by improving intersections, cycling, transit and parking.

Citizens have told the city that they want to be able to cross Front Street at Port Drive.

Another $75,000 will be spent on beacons and curbs at Victoria Road at Esplanade Street, now an uncontrolled pedestrian crossing.

The changes are designed to increase pedestrian visibility and comfort, which should encourage more people to walk, Barbara Thomas, assistant manager of transportation, said in a report to council.

Waddington Road and St. George Crescent is a connector for two parks, two schools and is in a pedestrian-oriented neighbourhood. Uplands Drive at McRobb Avenue will see rapid-flash beacons installed for $20,000. It is an uncontrolled pedestrian crossing on a major road within two school catchment areas.

This is an area of continuing development and densification, Thomas said.

Hammond Bay Road and Nottingham Drive South will get beacons for $20,000.

When Hammond Bay Road was built, it was not within the city’s boundaries, which have since extended.

The road was built to a “rural mountainous standard,” Thomas said. “Walking and biking have been concerns here for many years.”

As a way to help pedestrians, the city has focused on crossings at strategic locations such as connections between neighbourhoods or near transit stops. The Nottingham site meets those criteria, Thomas said.

Council chose improving the five intersections above other options.

Another possibility was to spend $300,000 to install a sidewalk at Departure Bay Road to Alan-A-Dale Place to Wardropper Park to create a safer situation for youngsters walking to school. Coun. Zeni Maartman wondered when that project might happen.

Rose told council the Departure Bay sidewalk is already within the city’s capital plan as a future project and it could be considered in the coming year. In the interim, it may be possible to install bollards as a way to create a safer walking route for students, he said.

Mayor Leonard Krog noted that if a Departure Bay sidewalk was approved now, it would eat up the entire $300,000 budget.

All of the intersections, other than Front Street, have painted crosswalks.

cjwilson@timescolonist.com