It's going to get a minor facelift.
The City of Humboldt is currently in negotiations with 7-Eleven to purchase a small piece of land at the corner of Hwys. 5 and 20, also known as the Main Street and 8th Avenue intersection.
"Over the last year, we've started contact with 7-Eleven," said Joe Doxey, director of planning and engineering. "We haven't really gotten too far... They have requested more details and information back from us."
Doxey said they hope to finish negotiations with 7-Eleven this year so they can go forward with their plans for the intersection.
"From there it will be a question of how to fund the actual project," said Doxey.
The intersection will see some minor changes and one major change with this project.
Minor changes include tweaks to all the lines separating the lanes, including striping.
"There are some very minor tweaks that most people will not notice except for truck drivers who are southbound turning west," said Doxey. "It's a little on the tight side there, so we are making some changes on that lag, just in striping alone, to make sure they can make the turn."
The major changes they would like to make to the intersection would be at the 7-Eleven corner.
The City wants to take a small piece of land at the corner to make it easier for large trucks to make the turn east. Trucks had a tendency to knock over the lights at that intersection because of the tight turn. Getting land from 7-Eleven would fix that.
"We've gone into a little bit more detail of construction final drawings," said Doxey. "We've done some truck turning movements - basically modelled different types of trucks through the intersection - and we've kind of fine-tuned some of the striping and what-not through the intersection to determine where the medians and striping need to go."
The City will also be extending the curb south of that corner into the street.
"What it will do is stop the cars from passing on the right when the trucks are trying to make that eastbound turn," said Doxey.
By putting in the curb, it will take out one driveway into 7-Eleven. The City hopes to extend the other driveway for the convenience store and give the store more parking space.
The curb will first be what they call pinned-on curbing - a hard recycled rubber matting - instead of concrete.
"We don't have too many here," said Doxey. "You see them in Regina and Saskatoon when they are looking at bulbing out a crosswalk. They put them out and see how it works."
He explained that once people are used to the new design, they would then make it concrete.
The City would also like to put in some islands between the oncoming traffic at the intersection. The islands would start out as painted-on striping, then would switch to pinned-on curbing and eventually, when the budget would allow, concrete.
"The reason would be because of the number of accesses that are so close to the intersection," said Doxey.
He said they hope this will stop people from making left-hand turns into places like McDonald's and 7-Eleven so close to the intersection.
"They can (access those businesses) without being so close to the intersection," said Doxey. "It queues back pretty quickly. You have a car, then one truck and you've blocked the intersection."
It is also to help keep the intersection safe, added Doxey.
The City hopes to finish negotiations for the land and do some of the striping work before the end of this year.
