highways – mackaycartoons

Wednesday January 18, 2017

January 17, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 18, 2017

Funds must double to keep Hamilton roads at ‘C’ level: report

The city needs to double asphalt repair spending over the next decade just to keep increasingly rutted roads in fair shape, a new analysis shows.

As it is, municipal road conditions — particularly neighbourhood streets and urban collectors — are deteriorating steadily because the city budget isn’t keeping up with needed repairs, says public works head Dan McKinnon.

“We’re not sustainable … We know the overall condition rating is going to decline,” McKinnon said during a presentation to councillors on the city’s latest road condition analysis.

That report suggests Hamilton must spend about $521 million on repairs and reconstruction over the next 10 years just to hold the line on existing road conditions. We’re on track to spend only half that amount, with about $25.5-million slated to be directed to such repairs in 2017.

The city actually spends closer to $80 million a year on all things roads-related — but that includes bridges, sidewalks and street lights, traffic engineering, technical studies and construction related to new development.

The city bases its latest dire prediction on a roads condition index calculated with the help of a consultant who used ground-penetrating laser technology and visual inspections to evaluate all municipal roads block by block.

Based on the latest study, the city has awarded itself a “C” grade for roads — defined as “fair with some deterioration or defects evident” — or an average condition index of 62.

The “optimum” target condition index for roads is 81. While the city’s two parkways are close to that target level of driveability, residential streets and urban collectors have an average condition index closer to 58.

The latest public report doesn’t finger particularly bad roads or neighbourhoods, but a photo presentation to councillors used a spiderweb-cracked section of Chapple Street in Stoney Creek to illustrate a road in need of a rebuild. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Doubled Published – Oopsie.

Published in the Western Star, Corner Brook, Newfoundland – January

Published in the Western Star, Corner Brook, Newfoundland – January 20, 2017

Friday May 1, 2015

April 30, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 1, 2015

Ontario’s winter roads ‘less safe’ since privatization: auditor

Ontario saved millions but put lives in jeopardy by contracting out highway snow clearing and other winter road maintenance with poor oversight, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk says in a damning new report.

“In the past, highways were cleared much faster,” the auditor told reporters Wednesday, noting that “preliminary results show an increase in the number of deaths on Ontario highways in 2013 where snow, slush or ice was a factor.”

It’s taking twice as long to clear highways to bare pavement after storms than it did five years ago under a new system of “performance-based” contracts with specified service levels and no more on-the-road supervision by Ministry of Transportation staff.

Lysyk said she was stunned to find the Liberal government kept awarding the contracts despite warnings from Ministry of Transportation engineers that many low bidders didn’t have enough equipment to do the job properly.

In one startling case a year ago, an unnamed northern Ontario contractor refused to clear winter roads at one point and was fined for poor performance following an audit prompted by a pileup of 14 tractor trailers that forced an extensive highway closure.

Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca refused to apologize for the problems but said that “there’s no doubt there needs to be improvements. I will get this right.”

Del Duca said 105 pieces of snow removal, de-icing, salting and sanding equipment have been added in the past year and 20 inspectors added to keep better track of contractors, with whom he will meet in the coming weeks. (Source: Toronto Star)

Friday May 30, 2003

May 30, 2003 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 30, 2003

Mid-pen concerns deserve a response

There’s little doubt that the province has been ham-handed and insensitive in its plans for a mid-peninsula highway. While we believe the so-called “mid-pen” is needed and important to relieving serious highway congestion in the Niagara Peninsula, we have sympathy for Burlington, which prides itself on careful planning and smart growth, only to see a highway rammed through its protected rural area.

Burlington was brought into the process after Niagara region and Hamilton had been consulted, and had virtually signed off on the proposal.

Burlington has one of the most carefully managed planning and growth strategies of any municipality in Ontario. But it is likely where the mid-pen would dump its traffic load onto the QEW and highways 403 and 407. To make those connections, it would have to cross the Niagara Escarpment.

The province has identified several options to bring the eastern terminus of the mid-pen down to existing highways, including Highway 403 between Mohawk and Aberdeen/Main Street East, and Highway 6 south of Clappison’s Cut. But few people see those as anything but decoys; the smart money is on what the province calls “Option C” — crossing the escarpment in rural north Burlington.

That was made even more unpalatable to Burlington by the province setting short timelines for response to its 179-page draft terms of reference, which includes its route options. (Source: COPE)