Consultant says it repeatedly discussed buried Red Hill study with city
Golder Associates, which is asking to participate in a judicial inquiry, also said it made recommendations for parkway friction fixes over several years
A consulting firm says it repeatedly discussed troubling Red Hill Valley Parkway friction tests with the city — and suggested fixes — over the years the study was reportedly buried.
Golder Associates made the claims Friday as part of a request to participate in a judicial investigation into the “slippery” parkway controversy — but also refused to answer questions outside the inquiry process.
City officials made a bombshell admission last February that they had rediscovered an inexplicably buried 2013 Tradewind Scientific study that showed low friction on the parkway. Councillors and top bureaucrats said they were unaware of the report and could not explain why it was hidden for years.
Residents had previously been assured there were “no concerns” with Red Hill asphalt, even after an award-winning 2017 Spectator story showed the parkway was crashprone compared to the adjoining Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway.
The mysteriously buried report helped spur the judicial inquiry that is now underway.
Golder commissioned the 2013 Tradewind report and submitted it to the city as part of a larger parkway study, confirmed the company’s lawyer in a deputation to the inquiry commissioner, Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel.
But lawyer Jennifer Roberts argued the inquiry appears to be framing the report as the “sole instance” of advice provided to improve Red Hill pavement friction. “Forgive us for challenging (those) assumptions ... But we don’t agree,” she said.
“There was successive, subsequent discussions with Hamilton about the friction testing results
and advice given as to how frictional quality of the surface could be improved.”
Golder outlined in documents provided to the inquiry that it discussed the results of the friction tests and related asphalt studies repeatedly with the city between 2014 and 2017.
The consultant also says it brought up specific “remedial measures” to improve parkway friction as far back as 2014 and re-sent the Tradewind study to the city in mid-December of 2015. That was just days after Hamilton’s former engineering director, Gary Moore, assured councillors and residents in a public meeting that there were “no concerns”’ about the parkway asphalt.
Notably, Golder said it obtained quotes for “shot-blasting” treatment for the parkway pavement as early as 2016, but added “Hamilton declined this proposal” by email in March of that year.
Golder did not specify in writing or at Friday’s hearing which city official or officials received the consultant recommendations, declined the treatment proposal or took part in the listed meetings.
Roberts referred questions to Golder’s media relations team, which declined to answer but promised to produce records and evidence for the inquiry “as directed” by the judge.
It’s possible details about Golder’s claims will become public as documentary exhibits in open inquiry hearings — but those public meetings are not expected until the fall.
Hamilton public works head Dan McKinnon, who only took over the position in late 2016, said Friday he was not aware of the meetings and correspondence listed by Golder before that time.
He acknowledged his team discussed Red Hill asphalt quality with Golder thereafter — but only in the context of planned repaving that was eventually fast-tracked last year.
The Golder submission also notes a Sept. 30, 2013, email from the city that suggests Hamilton police “commented that the ramps and road on the RHVP were slippery in wet conditions.”
The Tradewind friction study was commissioned shortly thereafter, according to the consultant.
The Spectator has asked about the referenced email, but so far neither police nor the city have been able to shed light on the details or context of the correspondence.
Golder’s “bold” deputation was “all news to us,” said Rob Hooper, the lawyer representing families of parkway crash victims in a prospective class-action lawsuit.
Hooper said the families he represents want more details about what advice or opportunities the city was given to improve the friction on the parkway in the years before the Tradewind report resurfaced.
The lawyer also asked for standing at the inquiry Friday on behalf of the families he represents.
Belinda Marazzato, whose daughter Olivia Smosarski died in a 2015 parkway crash alongside friend Jordyn Hastings, also applied separately for standing.
“Olivia would want me to participate in this inquiry ... I owe this to her,” she told the inquiry commissioner.
“We owe it to Jordyn and Olivia to help you protect other people’s children.”