It is going to continue to be tough to hold down taxes and keep up with all the road work that needs to be done in the township.
Director of public works Larry Lynch presented a report on the township’s five year capital roads rehabilitation plan on Oct. 11 and there was little good News in it
He noted that work on the plan began in 2008 with a road tour survey by R.J. Burnside and Associates to develop priorities for road needs in Mapleton.
That report is the main tool Lynch and council use in determining annual capital road reconstruction priorities. It is based on a number of factors, including condition of pavement, structural adequacy of the road base, ride comfort and surface problems.
Yet Lynch said in his report, “What it does not address, but equally important in the decision making process, is proximity of roads to residential areas, institutions such as schools, medical facilities and business area traffic volume, social impacts such as primary access routes to business, recreation or amenities frequently linked by automotive traffic.
“All of these social factors must be considered when making the ultimate strategy decisions on road rehabilitation priorities,” Lynch concluded.
He also presented council with another set of factors:
– rehabilitation is based on an annual budget of $500,000;
– improvement costs and benchmark cost are based on dollar values from the 2008 data;
– suggested rehabilitation strategy might have to be changed during actual construction;
– annual average daily traffic is based on best guess only; and
– the total cost of work in 2010 and this year was supplemented by Canada and Ontario infrastructure grants.
Lynch told council he tries to follow the plan closely, and as of that night, all the rural work scheduled for 2011 was completed. There were only two small “semi-urban” projects in Alma left to do.
This year, the township did work on nine kilometres of roads, pulverizing the existing hardtop or surface treatment, adding five to six inches of granular A gravel, compacting it, and topping up shoulder gravel. The township also used dust suppressant.
Lynch said the spring road tour provided the basis for what was done the rest of the year on township roads.
“What we’ve been doing is rural in nature, but that’s where we get the biggest bang for the buck,” he said.
But the spring tour also identified a need for paving at the PMD Arena and in a municipal lot in downtown Drayton.
Lynch said the unit cost of road work is based on $86,000 per km of road plus 15% to achieve the approximate benchmark cost of $100,000 per km. He said the balance of funding to meet the $2.5 million five year total would be $697,000 and that would be spread out to fund:
– the PMD Arena lot rehabilitation and driveway;
– the Drayton municipal parking lot rehabilitation and expansion;
– street upgrades in Drayton, Alma, Rothsay and Moorefield;
– improvements to the Drayton sewage lagoon access road; and
– paving unfinished areas between the Moorefield public works shop and the Moorefield fire hall.
Mayor Bruce Whale noted Concession 4 is the road in the worst condition, but it does not get much traffic. He added Sideroad 12 is more “semi-urban.” People there have been clamouring to have sections of that road re-paved, plus speed limits reduced.
Whale added, “We’re never going to catch up at $500,000 a year” in roads spending.
Councillor Mike Downey agreed “It’s going to be tough” to decide where to spend township dollars on roads.”
Lynch said he could bring a priority list of road work to the council meeting that was held on Tuesday. He said he cited the arena because of problems there, and the downtown parking lot, and “they both need lights.”
Councillors were also concerned about traffic counts.
Councillor Jim Curry wondered if placing a trip meter across the road would eliminate the need to guess about traffic counts.
Lynch said he has talked to a couple of companies about that service already. He added it might be possible to borrow road counting equipment from neighbouring Centre Wellington Township. Or, he said, he could send staff out to do counts.
Curry said there are problems with urban roads, and that is mainly due to having so much work on rural roads.
“It would help to have the information,” he said of the road counts.
Whale said council identified priorities during its road tour, and he is aware of deficiencies in urban areas. “All our hamlets need work.”
He added, “Nothing prevents identifying [road deficiencies] but that’s subject to budget restraints.”
Lynch added the roads study dealt strictly with the condition of the roads, and did not include such things as culverts that need replacing.
Whale asked that Lynch attach tentative dates for the work on roads for his next report.
