Somerset Street carries the Chinatown designation between Bay and Preston Streets. Yet it is Bronson that is being reconstructed, and there occured much debate about what landscaping should be carried through the intersection.
Eventually, the agreement was for the Chinatown landscape to be continuous, and the Bronson one to be interrupted. And since it is Bronson being reconstructed, it means the contractors have to install Chinatown-style lights and pavers at that intersection.
Originally calling for red and white concrete striped crosswalks, budget and time constraints forced some revisions. So all-red crosswalks were poured last week:
These crosswalks may later be painted with zebra stripes, using the city’s standard white paint for road markings. Brick pavers are not used on really busy roads like Bronson due heavy traffic wearing them out too quickly.
Do brick pavers work anywhere in our climate? At James and Bay such a set-up has turned into a built-in speed bump, due to the shifting of the materials.
Those bloody brick or stone pavers shouldn’t be used anywhere in Ottawa. Frost heave does a number on them, quickly: just look at the beautiful “Confederation Boulevard” segment of Elgin, and you’ll see the future of the quaint, beautiful, brick sidewalks that the Glebe insisted upon in the Bank Street reconstruction.