BARRHEAD — McDonald's is asking council for a local road to be closed for two weeks.
However, the fast-food franchise, rumoured to be coming to Barrhead for several weeks, will have to make do with less.
On March 12, Town of Barrhead councillors slightly modified the franchise's request to temporarily close the service road along 49th Street between 59th Avenue and 61st Street for a maximum of two weeks starting from April 1 to accommodate the connection of their lot to commercial utilities.
Originally, McDonald's had asked for the road to be closed for two whole weeks, starting April 1.
Chief administrative officer Edward LeBlanc said that two weeks was "a large window" and that public works would be meeting with representatives from the franchise's construction company to see if the time the service street needed to be closed could be reduced.
"Or perhaps a single traffic lane could be maintained or some combination of both," he said.
LeBlanc added that when the new Home Hardware building connected to commercial utilities in the same area, the service road only needed to be closed for two days.
"So we are a bit unsure why [the McDonald's contractor] needs two weeks this time, and we are hopeful that we can shorten that timeline because that service road is fairly busy," he said.
Coun. Dausen Kluin asked if the closure would impact the other businesses using the service road, using Bumper To Bumper as an example.
LeBlanc replied that the impact would be minimal as residents could still access the businesses via the south end of the same service road.
Coun. Don Smith also questioned the need for such an extended closure.
"Why does it take two weeks to dig up ten feet of road? That is a long time to disrupt the businesses and traffic flow in the area," he said.
Coun. Ty Assaf suggested they approve the closure for a week, saying council could extend the period if needed.
Coun. Anthony Oswald said he didn't believe the work would take that long. However, McDonald's asked for a more prolonged road closure to give themselves some wiggle room if the weather or other factors went south.
The Barrhead Leader contacted McDonald's, asking for more details on the company's plans and timelines for opening its Barrhead franchise. McDonald's did not respond before press time.
