Residents offer alternative plan for Talbot Trail

In 1985, new wave band Talking Heads released a song, “Road to Nowhere.”

I am frequently reminded of that song when driving east of Wheatley along what was once Highway 3 — more recently titled Talbot Trail. This is a lovely drive, often paralleling Lake Erie's shoreline.

However, on July 10, 2019, a portion of the Talbot Trail was closed and an indeterminate detour advised.

Initially, traffic was diverted at Coatsworth Road north to Tilbury. Very quickly, however, many drivers discovered a dusty gravel alternate route along Second Concession (of former Romney Township) between Coatsworth Road and Stevenson Road and then back to the original highway west of Port Alma.

Now, approaching four years later, a closed highway and a makeshift detour has burdened local residents and farms with dust, noise and vehicles travelling well beyond a safe speed on a now heavily gravelled rock-throwing road.

Periodically, the municipality of Chatham-kent has sent a grader along this informal detour to rearrange the gravel and stir up more mud or dust depending on the weather.

For four years, Chatham-kent has dithered over solving the problem of a highway closed because the road surface was cracking on the bluff above Lake Erie.

The municipality is now conducting a public review of a $45-million solution being proposed.

Local residents most affected by the highway closure appear to have a better idea, claiming to cost about $4.5 million. The residents' proposal would have the highway rebuilt inland skirting farms, but close to the original route.

Cliff proximity to Lake Erie offered a lovely lake view. However, cliff subsidence at various times spurred Ontario's Ministry of Transportation years ago to plan moving the highway.

Talbot Trail was precariously situated upon an area which has eroded for centuries and been a major source of sediment for the east shore of Point Pelee.

Wheatley's harbour periodically must be dredged to remove that sediment and help keep it on course as destination of Point Pelee's eastern shoreline.

In 2010, a portion of the Talbot Trail at the cliffs was diverted inland and a picnic area was created where the former road had passed closer to the cliff. By 2019, cracks again appeared on the diverted highway and it was closed.

In the interval between 2010 and 2019, numerous large vehicles carrying heavy components for wind turbines being constructed further east may have contributed to the instability of the highway along the cliff's edge. The road still remains closed, but has not collapsed into the lake.

Businesses along Talbot Trail, east of Wheatley, are not numerous, but apparently have endured losses in consequence of the absence of a redesigned highway.

Additionally, the road-to-nowhere situation also affects businesses in Blenheim as it really is a nuisance to make a detour.

Robinson Motorcycle, which has operated east of Wheatley since 1958, is one such business. Interestingly, very close to Robinson's is one of Ontario's least known but most fascinating engineering achievements, the Romney Drain.

This remarkable early 20th-century, brick tile-lined tunnel relief drain was constructed in Romney Township in 1911. Six feet in diameter and approximately 1,500 feet long, it was constructed largely by miners from Italy.

Interestingly, it was an imposed construction in consequence of a Supreme Court decision (Sutherland-innes Co. v. Romney Township, (1900) 30 S.C.R. 495).

Beyond Robinson's is a brick structure that was once a natural gas pipeline pump house.

Settlement history along Talbot Trail east of Wheatley is a story of early trading of shipping logs across the lake over to the U.S.

Today, the area along Coatsworth Road hosts an immense greenhouse complex, and its dimensions may affect a route for the highway if reconstructed as local residents urge.

Some residents of the area have proposed a solution to the cracking road bed that would retain some proximity to the lake, but through adjoining farm land. Their cost estimate is a good deal less than the figure used for the route proposed by the municipality of Chatham-kent.

Perhaps Chatham-kent might heed the local residents' proposal and save the entire municipality some money.