On June 15 council agenda there is a a report providing recommendations as to how we should maintain our road network. It includes information learned from the road needs study, a 10 year paving strategy and pavement management plan and a new gravel conversions program. This is a very dense lengthy report.  In addition I will comment to staff that it really has not been presented in a user friendly manner with hopes that next time it will be done better.  If you take the time to read through the report you will learn a great deal about road construction; and it will give you confidence, I hope, that science is being used to make decisions about how to manage our roads and to make priorities on our scarce budget dollars. Below I have commented on a couple of the important sections.

Page 37 of 141 is the 10 year resurfacing plan.  Being the ward 5 Councillor I have been very anxious to see this as there are several roads in the ward about which I have been receiving questions.   At time of writing this post (June 10) I know that the information showing about Kettleby Rd. is not correct and I anticipate that it will be modified on Monday; accordingly  I am not going to comment any further on that.  Rehabilitation of Station Rd. From Burton Grove to West is scheduled for 2024 which seems reasonable to me given work associated with the GO train. To see the status of other roads I suggest you look at the report. To clarify, council will not be approving the specifics; each year when the budget is being done staff will refer to this plan and will propose executing it. Overall budget constraints could lead to specific streets being advanced or delayed; or conditions of the street could change requiring a different response.

Gravel conversion 10 year plan is page 88 of 141.  It shows about $1,000,000 a year. As reviewed in the report there has been very thorough detailed examination of the roads and I have no basis for doubting that analysis. I do question the order of the choices and will be asking about that.  At this point I will acknowledge that I initially was not an enthusiastic supporter of converting our gravel roads but I have heard the arguments; and during this past winter season with the unusual weather conditions I have been well aware of how challenging gravel roads can be.

Page 61 of 141 is the preventive maintenance plan.  The report suggests that our annual budget should have $41,000 per year for providing this kind of work. That sounds like a very reasonable strategy.

If you wish to make a deputation and/or provide your comments in an email you need to register (or send that email) by noon June 12 to clerks@king.ca.  And as always comments on this blog are welcomed and can inform my comments at Council.