Two of Falls’ worst roads on city’s radar
There are plans to reconstruct two of the worst roads in Niagara Falls, but not for months or even years down the road.
The day after dignitaries got a first-hand experience of the good, the bad and the bumpy roads of Niagara during a 60-minute bus tour, the City of Niagara Falls’ director of municipal works said two of those thoroughfares — Drummond Road and Dorchester Road — are on staff’s radar.
Geoff Holman said the city has been working for about a year on engineering designs for Drummond Road, which should be wrapped up by fall.
A $3.8-million reconstruction is identified in city council’s 2018 capital budget as a priority one project without funding.
Council approved a $32.6-million capital budget for 2018, with 79 per cent allocated for municipal-works projects.
The budget allocates $25.8 million toward municipal works, including road and sewer projects, as well as engineering fees/ designs and studies.
The capital budget is scheduled to be amended in May, once the city receives the final instalment of casino-hosting revenue from Ontario Lottery and Gaming.
Once that happens, council is expected to re-evaluate some of the $45.9-million worth of unfunded projects the city has on the books — one of the largest being the $3.8 million for Drummond Road, which is a city road.
“When we start to look at this … list, I think the expectation is those projects that are shovel ready will receive consideration,” said Holman.
“I’m not sure we’ll be shovel ready (on Drummond Road) until September or October of this year. But that’s not necessarily a good or bad reason to put off the construction. We know we have to do the work and we need to do it in phases because it’s such a large project — $3.8 million is a lot of cash, but it definitely needs to be done on this section of roadway. We’re going to keep pushing it to get it to the top of the list.”
He said staff wants to concentrate first on the section of Drummond Road between Thorold Stone Road and Cherrywood Road. The next phase would be from Cherrywood to Morrison Street.
“We’re working with CN to get that track crossing improved in some way,” said Holman.
He said future reconstruction of Dorchester Road, also a city road, is not so straightforward.
“The problem we have with Dorchester Road is we don’t have a proper storm outlet yet. We’ve embarked on an (environmental assessment) to get a proper outlet into the hydro canal and we’ll be looking to construct a storm outlet for this roadway when the hydro canal project takes place.”
In the meantime, Holman said short-term repairs will have to be done on Dorchester Road, pointing to about $500,000 set aside in this year’s road rehabilitation budget to fix up the worst areas, “knowing that within the next three-to-five years we’ll be looking at a full reconstruction of that section — Dorchester between Lundy’s Lane and McLeod (Road).”
Municipal and regional representatives climbed aboard a bus Tuesday, joining CAA Niagara for a ride on several of Niagara’s worst roads.
The tour, held to launch CAA’s 15th annual Worst Roads campaign, rolled down streets in Thorold, Niagara Falls and St. Catharines that made the top 10 list a year earlier.
The organization is again asking drivers, cyclists and pedestrians to vote for the worst roads in Niagara, by using the CAA cellphone app or logging ontocaaworstroads.com/niagara .Voting closes April 13.
The results will be released in late May.