‘Hidden Quarry’ committee delayed as Highway 7 road work prep drags on
Operations not expected to begin until next year
GUELPH/ERAMOSA – James Dick Construction is waiting for Highway 7 to be ready for turning lane work before scheduling the first meeting of a “Hidden Quarry” community liaison committee.
The committee is a requirement, among others, of a 2020 Ontario Land Tribunal decision to allow the quarry.
Anyone living within 500 metres of the site – located at the northeast corner of Highway 7 and 6th Line, southeast of Rockwood in Guelph/Eramosa – can join the committee, which will have two James Dick representatives. Anyone can attend the meetings.
James Dick vice president Greg Sweetnam previously said the first meeting would be held this spring.
But that timeline is nearly gone as the company waits for utility relocations and prep work to be done to ready Highway 7, between Fifth Line Milton and 6th Line of Guelph/Eramosa, for turning lanes.
“The intersection work is the first step to getting that quarry running … we haven’t put a shovel in the ground of that pit yet,” Sweetnam told the Advertiser.
Sweetnam said after the company got permission to move forward with the quarry, it took the province years to approve the lanes.
The province issued a licence to extract 700,000 tonnes of aggregate yearly from the 60-acre open-pit mine in 2025.
Gas, hydro and telecommunications lines are being moved and trees are being cleared for grading the shoulders of Highway 7.
“Once we have the details and the timing of when the road job is going to be, that’s when we’ll call the first committee meeting,” Sweetnam said.
“We’re hoping that the turn lanes are in before the end of the year,” he said, adding the work could be delayed until spring of 2027 if service relocations take too long.
For now, Sweetnam said the company has “nothing to tell anybody.”
The first meeting is likely to be virtual, and about the haul road.
Operations are expected to begin next year, with an eventual second committee meeting, likely to be in person, at the quarry, Sweetnam said, “so people can see it with their own eyes; they don’t have to imagine things.”
