Roads discussions to dominate Prince Edward County meeting

Roads will be a big topic of discussion on Thursday at Shire Hall.

Committee of the Whole will start their meeting with a deputation from a resident with a proposed solution to repair Highway 49.

Aleska Kaye states in his report to council everyone agrees the rehabilitation of the road is well overdue.

A report from the Development Service Department is seeking a request for proposal be issued for surveys, detailed design and construction phasing plan for County Road 49.

The staff report states there are severe joint failures, severe longitudinal and meandering cracking, severe transverse cracking and severe polishing of the road surface.

It is classified as a rigid concrete road and is believed to be fully reinforced with reinforcing steel.

Originally constructed in the 1960s, it has received numerous attempts to patch and spot repair without much success.

The estimated cost for consulting engineering services to complete requisite surveys, detailed design and a construction phasing plan for the

Rehabilitation of County Road 49 is anticipated at approximately $300,000 – $400,000 and could be paid for from the “generic roads” portion of the 2020 approved capital budget.

In July 2017, Associated Engineering (Ont.) Ltd, (AE) was retained by the County of Prince Edward to provide consulting engineering services pertaining to County Road 49 Road Condition Assessment and Rehabilitation Options. The purpose of that study was to asses the current condition of 17.3 kilometers of County Road 49
including drainage and roadside safety and provide rehabilitation or replacement options complete with cost estimates along County Road 49 from County Road 6 to County Road 15.

This report provided the following options (2019 values, not adjusted for inflation):
Option 1: Rubblize concrete pavement and replace with hot mix asphaltic (HMA) pavement = $18.3 million
Option 2: Rubblize concrete pavement and replace with Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavement = $23.0 million
Option 3: Remove and haul away concrete pavement and replace with HMA pavement = $21.7 million
Option 4: Remove and haul away concrete pavement and replace with PCC pavement = $26.2 million
Option 5: Repair existing concrete and overlay PCC pavement = $47.2 million
Option 6: Repair existing concrete and overlay HMA pavement = $42.0 million

Councillors will also be presented with a 2019 road needs study report to recommend a path forward to address the ongoing challenges of needs that exceed the County’s ability to fund.

Staff say physical road asset conditions in Prince Edward County are deteriorating faster than resources can maintain. Based on staff road evaluations in 2019 the replacement costs to improve road conditions from “poor” and “fair” to “good” are estimated to be over $163,000,000.

To put this in context, the County’s annual operating levy overall is $40,300,000.

The meeting begins at 1 p.m.