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A decades-long effort to ban heavy truck traffic through Galt's core will go into effect Oct. 16 when Waterloo regional police begin enforcing the ban and educating drivers who disobey new street signs.
Signs were posted this week warning drivers that no heavy trucks will be allowed at any time on:
- Concession Street between Ainslie and Dundas streets
- Ainslie Street between Concession and Water streets
- Myers Road from Water Street to Franklin Boulevard
- Water Street from Ainslie to Coronation Boulevard
- St. Andrews Street from Cedar Street to Grand Avenue South
- George Street from St. Andrews Street to Park Hill Road
- Park Hill Road from George Street to Ainslie Street South
- Grand Avenue between St. Andrews and Cedar streets
The ban is only meant to divert through traffic in the core and does not include trucks making deliveries to downtown businesses or other areas impacted by the ban.
Manager of transportation planning for the Region of Waterloo Kornel Mucsi led the project to study and implement the truck ban and said drivers will be educated about the ban during a three month "transition period" during which police will familiarize drivers with alternate routes.
Once the grace period ends, fines will be levied under the Highway Traffic Act and municipal bylaws.
"We are just working on providing a map of the alternative routes that can be handed out to truck drivers," he said in an email to CambridgeToday.
The region has reached out and shared the route changes with the Ontario Trucking Association, he added.
The ban was originally proposed to divert north and south traffic through the Galt core, but at the prompting of Cambridge councillor Adam Cooper and regional councillor Doug Craig last summer, the ban was expanded to include Concession Street.
The ban on east and west traffic on Concession and Cedar streets, Highway 97, will force trucks that typically travel from aggregate pits in North Dumfries to make the right turn down Water Street South to get to the intended bypass on McQueen Shaver Boulevard.
Since McQueen Shaver opened in Aug. 2021, the region estimates about 250 of an estimated 1,000 truck trips a day have been diverted from downtown Galt.
In a message to CambridgeToday, Cooper says he's excited to see this truck diversion finally come to fruition after years of lobbying from Cambridge councillors, the retail community and others.
"No longer having large trucks thundering through our Galt core will undoubtedly make for a safer and more enjoyable downtown Galt for both residents and businesses," he wrote. "This is an improvement that I and many in this area have wanted to see happen for a very long time."
Cooper believes the truck ban will add to the revitalization of Galt's historic core, making it more appealing to tourists and anyone else visiting Cambridge and walking through the downtown.
Residents whose homes back onto the bypass route on McQueen Shaver will have to put up with noise from the anticipated increase in truck traffic in the meantime.
The region will begin building a noise wall along the entire 1.5 kilometre stretch next year at an estimated cost of $3.9 million.
