Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 08/01) - MacDonald Drive is getting a whole new look but some people who live along the road don't like what they see.

Road construction along the one-way road in Old Town has eliminated street parking, narrowed the road and stranded some driveways several feet above the road surface.

After road crews poured the cement curbs on the weekend, resident Wayne Guy said it's clear the new road just won't work.

"Before, I know it was a crappy road, but people had options," Guy said. "It's nice for tourists but they forgot about the utility of the place. They spent all this money and at the end of the day, you have something that doesn't work. We're worse off."

The new squared curbs will make it more difficult for him to back his boat trailer into his lot. And he worries about the potential traffic jam that will arise every time a car needs to stop, since there's not enough room for passing.

He said he's already had a problem with a cab stopping at his house and being forced to block traffic since there's no place to pull over.

Guy's neighbour, Margaret Bertulli, said visitors to her house will no longer be able to park on the street and she's worried about how she's going to back out of her driveway, since the square curb will prevent her from backing out at an angle.

"At the moment, the way the curbs are situated, I have to back my car right out on the street, instead of the side of the road, and I'm on a blind curve. The curb has to be lowered so I can back out safely."

Greg Kehoe, the city's manager of public works and engineering, was on the site Monday talking with some of the residents. He said the square curbs are there to prevent cars from jumping the sidewalk and potentially hitting pedestrians.

"The design team feels com-fortable we've balanced public safety with what people want," he said. "Working in Old Town is always a challenge because the road right of way is narrow. We were restricted by how wide we could go. In the past, it was wider because there was no sidewalk. This is a safer design."

He said the most of the problems are just temporary and will be fixed by the time road construction is finished.

The driveways that are now on small cliffs will be sloped down and driveways below the grade will be raised with gravel.

The changes to street parking and road width were discussed at a public information meeting June 6, so people shouldn't have been surprised, Kehoe said. "Whenever you have construction, there's change."

Residents met last night at Mary and Friends Tea Room to discuss the changes and what could be done about them. Watch for an update in Friday's Yellowknifer.