Hard road

County Road 3 needs fixing, but how remains an open question

With the snow cleared, it’s easy to see the cracked asphalt stretching along each lane of Rednersville Road. Long, thin lines that have been filled with tar, but are separating again from the frost heave, and potholes big enough to cause damage are appearing.

And looking carefully, it appears the sides of the road might fall off, given enough time, tilted just slightly into the ditches on either side of the road.

In the 1960s, County Road 3 was nothing but a single-lane cement road, and it didn’t even span the entire length between Loyalist Parkway and Highway 62.

Then it was paved, but not well. Workers poured asphalt over the cement and to either side to widen the road, but little was done to prevent the erosion and degradation the road is seeing today.

A group of residents who live by the road and use it frequently have started a petition, now with about 1,000 names, to get the road completely resurfaced. The road is a hot topic for the group, the Ratepayers Association of Prince Edward, Ameliasburgh.

A stretch of Rednersville is propped up by a single lane of concrete in the centre. The wider asphalt surface is much softer and sags over the edge of the concrete. The height differential creates a driving hazard in some locations, say residents.

“Two sections washed away late last year, into the Bay of Quinte,” said Councillor Dianne O’Brien, a part of that group. “We have photos where there’s eight- to ten-foot holes clear across the road. The infrastructure has just been repaired and repaved and it just can’t be repaired anymore, it has to be replaced.”

The County has estimated that a needs assessment and surface preparation would cost about $1 million, and that the resurfacing itself would cost about $9 million, two to three times more per kilometre than an average road.

Mayor Peter Mertens says the repairs are getting more expensive by the year. Resurfacing is necessary, but the money just isn’t there.

Mertens has petitioned MP Daryl Kramp for federal funding, and is currently working with MPP Todd Smith to help find funding from relevant ministries, though a proposal to the province for a needs assessment was rejected last year.

“The biggest challenge to getting the road fixed is the cost of fixing it,” said Mertens. “It’s unlike every other road, in the County where this is not a simple resurfacing of a road. It’s a total rebuild of a road which, in some areas, will require excavating six to seven feet. The road initially was never properly built.”

Mertens, who recently met with the resident group along with Commissioner of Public Works Robert McAuley to hear their concerns, wants to see the initial funds to repair the road in the 2012 budget.

The fix would have to be done in stages, because it’s too much work for one construction season, says Mertens. So the capital for the project can come from multiple years.

In the meantime, some residents are feeling frustrated that nothing has happened yet.

“We feel that we’re pretty forgotten, and we pay 26 cents of every dollar spent out of County-raised taxes,” said Paul Boyd, a member of the Ratepayers Association. “I can’t think of anything we get in return.”