What’s the hold
up? When the yearly “Worst Roads” poll comes out every fall and
names rotten routes across Ontario, how quickly do local authorities
send in the repair crews? Well, its complicated. As we learned last
week, work on the number one worst road Steeles Avenue has been
delayed for years by political disputes between the City of Toronto
and York Region.
Ontario’s other
cities did not escape scrutiny -- many had a pair of streets named
in the top 20. Up Kingston way, the brunt of complaints focused on
two arterials. The Municipal Roads Coalition ranked Division Street
as #4 worst. The coalition, made up of road user groups and road
builders describe Division as “one of Kingston’s main north-south
roads, running from Highway 401 south to Lake Ontario. Small
sections have been repaved over the past number of years with
another little section underway ... but there are many more
stretches of this key thoroughfare that are marked by very bumpy,
deteriorated pavement. A major rehabilitation project is required.”
Municipal
spokesperson Cindie Ashton says the City of Kingston “did
reconstruct a major piece of Division last year.” This year the city
will evaluate what work is needed on the next section along -- a
bridge over the busy rail line that links Toronto and Montreal and
the adjoining roadway. There is no time-line for action beyond the
evaluation.
There is a lot
more to a roadway than the road itself. Sidewalks, signals, water
pipes, phone lines -- all reach the age of retirement independently.
There’s little point in rebuilding a road and then ripping it up a
few years later to put in new sewers. City engineers rank the roads
they believe need work, says Ashton. They then “compare that to the
Utilities Kingston priority list of what needs to happen
underground, and then the lists are combined.”
She points out
Kingston is not a young city -- it’s 165 years old. Its downtown,
some distance from the 401, was developed largely before motor cars.
In preparing a new master transportation plan, municipal officials
recently took it to the people, asking what they wanted their city
to focus on. Three scenarios were presented -- ‘staying on track,’
‘switching gears’ and ‘a new direction.’ The former looked more
heavily to cars for mobility needs, the middle at mixed use and the
latter is weighted more to cycling and public transit. Says Ashton,
“Based on a quite extensive public consultation, we found that
people wanted a new direction.”
Any rebuilding
in downtown Kingston won’t just look at moving cars quickly, but
everything else, like sidewalks, benches, lighting, landscaping and
bike parking.
John Counter
Blvd., 11th on the worst road list, is a world away from downtown.
Drivers passing through Kingston might not encounter this suburban
thoroughfare, unless they are detoured off nearby Highway 401 for
some reason. Visitors to the website
http://worstroads.ca/home.asp
commented
“This is a major east/west access in Kingston and at most times
during the day it is congested. The road is in drastic condition
(very rough) and narrow. It is the main road to the VIA and bus
stations and several other industrial and commercial facilities, and
therefore is heavily used. Traffic also gets backed up due to a
level railway crossing.”
Once again,
fixing the road is complicated. Ashton says that by last year, the
city had already started an environmental study in order to widen
John Counter and perhaps link it to a proposed river crossing. It’s
more than pavement at issue -- she says there is property
acquisition to sort out, designing a new bridge over the rail line,
plus dealing with nearby parks and marshland.
You’ll have to
be patient, Kingston.
Ed Drass
Email the
Traffic Guru at
edrass@nationalpost.com