A long-awaited study of the congested O’Brien Road corridor is finally off the ground.

Renfrew council has awarded a $235,145 contract to Morrison Hershfield to conduct an environmental and design assessment of the road between Fortington Street and Whitton Road. The study will detail the steps needed to ensure traffic will move safely and effectively as commercial and residential development continues in the area.

The project, expected to be complete by next March, will be financed in a large part by the Ministry of Transportation, as O’Brien Road doubles as Highway 60.

Coun. Tom Anderson told council the development and works committee anticipates the project will jumpstart a review of transportation needs throughout the town. The committee will propose funding in the 2009 town budget to start work on a transportation master plan for Renfrew, as well as apply for MTO funding, he added.

Anderson pointed out the town can’t change one road without affecting others. “Even if we fix O’Brien, we’ll have a bottleneck on Raglan,” he said. “It’s time we looked outside the box … and came up with a plan for the whole town.”

Development and works director Mike Asselin’s report on the study notes the town needs to address more bottlenecks on the Highway 60 and 132 routes through town, as well as problems on other streets.

The town had originally anticipated the O’Brien study area would stretch from Whitton Road to confusion corner (the Raglan-Hall-Veterans Memorial Boulevard intersection), but the cost of redesigning the whole route would have cost $327,000. As a result, council agreed to cut out the Raglan to Fortington section from the study, noting as it is a divided four-lane road, there’s not much likely to be changed there.

The main issues, such as the need to fix the confusing lane configurations, add turning lanes and fix ruts on the roadway, are on the stretch outwards from Fortington, said Anderson. The study will also provide information to assist with the proposed Hall Avenue extension, which will take  some of the traffic off the O’Brien corridor.

With confusion corner removed from the study area, the county has withdrawn its $15,000 allocation for the study. However, the town and county will continue to work on issues raised by a county report that recommended eight possible short-term improvements to the troublesome intersection.

The amount to be spent on the O’Brien study this year will be limited to $150,000, with the MTO providing $135,000 and the town $15,000.

Anderson reported the town will seek top-up money from the province to have the MTO fund 90 per cent of the rest of the project planned for 2009.

He noted it is a good feeling to get the project underway, as the town has been applying for MTO funding for the study for at least 10 to 12 years.

Morrison Hershfield is one of the leaders in transportation issues in the province and has worked with the town before, so knows the problems first-hand, he said, explaining why the town looked to that company to take on the project.