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We’re number one
It is quite an achievement. Never before has an Ontario road rocketed to the top of the Canadian Automobile Association’s Worst Road list before appearing among its top 10 worst. But there it is. County Road 49 is Ontario’s Worst Road, as voted by visitors to the CAA website between April 6 and April 29. Debuting in the number one spot is remarkable. CAA’s Raymond Chan says it points to the need for infrastructure money to be spent in rural Ontario. CAA’s Worst Road campaign co-sponsor, the Ontario Road Builders’ Association, says more investment is needed in municipal infrastructure.
Member of Provincial Parliament Todd Smith has seized the CAA poll as evidence that residents of Prince Edward County see the repair of County Road 49 as a priority, as a key economic gateway.
“Mayor Quaiff and I talk about County Road 49 it seems like once a week,” said Smith in a statement.
Certainly, County Road 49 has become a personal mission for Mayor Robert Quaiff since February, when on his way to a meeting in Napanee, he came across three bouldersized chunks of concrete that had broken away from the roadway, leaving small wheelwrecking craters to swallow unsuspecting vehicles.
So full marks go to Mayor Quaiff. He has pulled off an impressive public relations accomplishment. He has captured attention about the condition of County Road 49 and propelled that message through the noise and, for a few days anyway, made this road the talk of chat shows, social media and the automobile pages of the newspaper.
And to be crystal clear, should the province and federal government decide to come with a truckload of money to fix County Road 49 as a gift to the people of Prince Edward County, this newspaper will stay quiet in the corner. But that is how these things work.
Typically, this kind of infrastructure replacement is funded one-third each, by the federal, provincial and municipal governments. Currently, the price tag to rehabilitate County Road 49 is about $21 million. That’s before any engineering or design work has begun. This means the final price is likely to be over $30 million. A third of $30 million is $10 million. That is what the County spends on public works in a year— for everything! The entire public works budget, a third of the total tax levy spent on one road? Even an economic gateway?
We have a bad track record of big municipal infrastructure projects in the County. When first contemplated, the sewage treatment plant in Picton was projected to cost about $10 million. By the time the federal and provincial governments agreed to fund a third of its replacement cost, the price had risen to about $18 million. The feds put in $5.2 million and the province put in $5.2 million. The plant eventually cost more than $30 million. The balance, about $20 million, rests entirely on the backs of County water and wastewater users. It will be many years before this debt is paid.
Meanwhile, waterworks rates rise beyond affordability and eye-watering waterworks connection charges discourage new home development that might mitigate these rising costs. These are the lasting consequences to bad infrastructure decisions.
Are there other, perhaps, better ways to spend $10 million? Money we don’t have? Shouldn’t we have a debate or discussion about this before we plunge ahead? It wasn’t an election issue. No one, not Mayor Quaiff nor anyone else, ran on a campaign to fix County Road 49. No public meetings. It just popped up one day on the way to Napanee.
Perhaps there are better solutions. Perhaps we could lower the speed limit—allowing drivers to enjoy the spectacular view of Long Reach, Hay Bay and Picton Bay. Are we really going to make big infrastructure decisions based upon a CAA poll and Mayor Quaiff’s travel routes?
County Road 49 isn’t the worst road in Ontario. It isn’t even the worst road in Prince Edward County, according to the person responsible for managing the municipality road infrastructure.
Robert McAuley heads the County’s Engineering, Development and Works group. His department rates County roads on a scale of one to ten—one being the worst and ten being a brand new road in ideal condition. According to this scale, the concrete portion of 49 is considered a two and in some places, a three. On the asphalt portion, County Road 49 is considered a six. The County has few roads that rank six or higher.
Further, McAuley notes that the County has many, many roads rated one and two—as bad or worse than 49. Each deserving of attention. Collectively, these roads require $110 million to fix them, according to McAuley.
The most recent tally of road and bridge rehabilitation needs in the County is estimated at more than $600 million. Remember that we spend just $10 million a year on public works. That is what we can afford to do.
It is clear that we can never hope to catch up. Our roads decay and fall apart faster than we can fix them. The property tax payer in rural Ontario simply can’t afford these roads—particularly roads like 49 that until just over a decade ago were the responsibility of the province. Pretending otherwise only delays hard decisions.
Turning the issue into a political or social media contest seems the wrong way to have this discussion.
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