Hope kids turn to jaywalking after pedestrian overpass demolished

The loss of a pedestrian overpass and lack of a temporary replacement has left some children to jaywalk across a local street, a local parent says.

In October 2023, an excavator accidentally destroyed a Silver Creek overpass used by children to cross Flood Hope Road and access nearby Silver Creek Elementary.

Despite calls earlier this year for a safe temporary replacement, the overpass hasn’t been fixed and there’s no backup on the horizon. That has left students and families in limbo for months, says Krystal Ridgway, the former president of the Silver Creek Elementary PAC. (Ridgway left the role in the summer due to personal reasons but has continued to advocate for an overpass replacement.)

Without the overpass or a temporary crosswalk, Ridgway said some parents have resorted to driving their kids to school. Many other students still walk to school, but some do so dangerously. Although there are crosswalks a couple hundred metres away, some students jaywalk across Flood Hope Road at the site of the former overpass.

‘What do you think most kids without their parents are going to do?’

Ridgway has witnessed children as young as seven attempt the crossing.

“If I’m being honest and I was a 10-year-old, I’m like, ‘I could walk two, three blocks that way, or I could cross the street now and be at school,’” Ridgway said. “What do you think most kids without their parents are going to do?”

The damaged overpass is located at Flood Hope Road’s junction at Peter Street, roughly 300 metres from Silver Creek Elementary. The structure had a ramp and its loss has also caused difficulties for the family of one student that uses a wheelchair.

“That’s a big issue for her mother because it’s difficult in the winter to get her to school,” Ridgway said. “It’s like, ‘Ok, we have to drive her with the truck.’ But they shouldn’t have to, there should be a safe way for every student [to get to school].”

The overpass is expected to be replaced by a signalized intersection sometime next year, according to the District of Hope. It will be woven into the larger $2.7 million Richmond Hill multi-use pathway project, a two-kilometre path that will connect Silver Creek to downtown.

The October 2023 incident—an excavator boom strike that dislodged a section of the bridge—forced the District of Hope to evaluate the future of the overpass, which Mayor Victor Smith says isn't used very often. The district decided that rebuilding the overpass wasn’t worth the hassle and wove it into the Richmond Hill plan.

“We were planning to take it down anyway because you have to get it recertified, re-engineered and everything else,” Smith said.

Although Ridgway supports the Richmond Hill multi-use path, she wishes the municipality installed a temporary intersection or arranged for adults to patrol the road.

The Silver Creek Elementary PAC wrote a letter to the District of Hope in March, outlining safety concerns and the risk of having children cross in the winter months. Smith replied that same month, writing that the project would be combined with the Richmond Hill multi-use path project, and that he expected construction on the signal to take place over the summer.

But families were still without an overpass replacement when school began in September. And they’re still waiting.

“We were told, ‘We’re going to get something in place—temporary or permanent—by school. Well, we’re past fall,” Ridgway said. “We need to get some kind of budget that we can afford to have a crosswalk person or at least a blinking light.”

Smith said a temporary intersection would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and is financially impractical, considering plans are already underway for a new signal and there are two other nearby crosswalks.

He admits the process to greenlit the permits and design of the Richmond Hill project has taken a long time. But Smith said students and pedestrians should have a safe crossing sometime in 2025.

Construction on the multi-use path project is scheduled to begin later this month. Work is expected to continue “well into next year,” Smith said.