$15M resurfacing of Red Hill Valley Parkway planned for summer 2019
Since opening in 2007, expressway has been a point of controversy with crash hot spots and a suspicion that the road is slippery
THE CITY OF HAMILTON doesn’t know if something is wrong with the asphalt on the Red Hill Valley Parkway, because it hasn’t been thoroughly tested.
Despite the extensive sampling — which produced inconclusive results — the city is expediting plans to resurface the 11-year-old parkway to the tune of $15 million.
The seven-kilometre parkway has been the subject of controversy since opening in 2007, seeing crash hot spots and complaints that the road is slippery. Taxpayers may never know what, if anything, was behind the apparent troubles on the road.
Friction testing in 2015 was inconclusive. So too was testing from asphalt samples collected in December 2017. Yet when the city collected
three large — one metre by six-tonine metre — samples from the parkway this summer, they did not test the quality of the aggregate used in the mix. At least one expert suggested such tests would be expected.
The tests looked at whether the city could use a technique called “hot in-place,” that recycles asphalt during resurfacing. The cost-saving technology involves scraping up the top layers of asphalt, mixing and then repaving in one continuous chain.
But the city has opted not to use this because there isn’t enough information that it works in Ontario,
The work is expected next summer, with $7 million in funding coming from this year’s budget and the balance from next year.
said Gord McGuire, Hamilton’s director of engineering services.
The tests showed significant cracking in the top layers of the road, so the city is fast-tracking plans to resurface the parkway — a $15-million project. The work is expected next summer, with $7 million in funding coming from this year’s budget and the balance from next year.
“We’re going to expedite resurfacing,” McGuire said.
The work, which will involve scraping down about 50 millimetres (two inches) and repaving with new asphalt, is considered expected “maintenance” work.
McGuire said the testing done involved adding new material to the old to see if it could be used to resurface the road. The testing did not involve breaking the material apart.
The city did not see the need to test the quality of the asphalt because the decision had already been made, because of the cracking, that the road needed to be resurfaced, he said.
When asked whether the city would consider testing the asphalt quality as a way to see if it could have been a factor in any crashes, McGuire said he couldn’t comment.
“Sometimes if asphalt is very aged or severely cracking and damaged, it may be better to not recycle,” said Hassan Baaj, an associate professor of engineering at the University of Waterloo and director of its Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology. He spoke generally and not specifically about the RHVP.
There are several factors that can cause cracking in a road, including stress from traffic, harsh winters, excess water, and problems with the mix of asphalt such as poor-quality aggregate.
This can all be tested.
For instance, cracks caused by heavy traffic show particular patterns on the pavement that can be measured, Baaj said. And asphalt can be broken down in the lab, separating the minerals, to look at the quality of the aggregate used.
If the objective is to see if asphalt can be recycled, you need to test to see if the existing pavement is compatible, he said. This would include taking samples to the lab to analyze.
“We need to have a full picture,” he said. The RHVP was designed using perpetual pavement — a technique that involves deeper layers that is supposed to protect the foundation of the road from cracking and lengthen its lifespan to around 50 years. It also used stone mastic asphalt — a higher-end mix that is used on highvolume roads.
When the parkway opened the city estimated
12 to 15 years before resurfacing would be needed. And the base of the road appears to be holding up, with the current cracks being top-down.
Since opening, the parkway has experienced a higher volume of traffic — particularly truck traffic — than expected. However, the city says traffic has levelled off and is expected to stay consistent.
An award-winning investigation by The Spectator published last year found there were twice as many crashes on Red Hill than on the connecting Lincoln Alexander Parkway, with most happening in curving parts of the road when the ground is wet.
Families of loved ones who have died on the road have been calling for improvements. Around $1.5 million in upgrades have happened in recent years, including improved signage and replacing “cat’s eyes” lane markers.
One of the most passionate requests from families has been to install centremedian barriers that would prevent crossover crashes, but the city has said these will only be considered if the parkway is widened.
McGuire said the city may look at using the “hot in-place” technology on a different road once it’s more established.
It’s been seldom used in Ontario. In 1999, the Ministry of Transportation successfully used it on a trial on Highway 401, west of Sweaburg Road just outside Woodstock, said MTO spokesperson Bob Nichols.
A 60-kilometre project started this year on Highway 11, outside Thunder Bay, he said. About a third has been completed, but due to poor weather they’ve had to shut down early and won’t finish up until next year.
“Hot in-place” recycling is expected to last about 10 years, compared to conventional repaving that lasts about 12 years, Nichols said. However, a road’s lifespan varies depending on design, climate and traffic.