King Township posted the updated Roads Needs Study last night as part of the agenda for Monday night's council meeting. I've spoken with many of you about the significance of this report which is what town staff will use to determine when, how and which roads will be upgraded, treated, paved, etc.
I've only had a chance to quickly review it and will be doing a deep dive over the weekend but wanted to share this information with everyone now. There are two options to share your thoughts with council at Monday night's meeting:
1) SUBMIT WRITTEN COMMENTS to the Township Clerk at clerks@king.ca no later than 12:00 p.m. (noon) on Monday June 12th. Comments will form part of the public record and will be circulated to Council.
2) SPEAK TO COUNCIL in person or remotely (by audio-telephone) by pre-registering with the Clerk’s Division at 905-833-4068 or email clerks@king.ca by 12:00 p.m. (noon) on Monday June 12th. Provide your full name, address, telephone number and the item you wish to speak to. All comments addressed to Council will form part of the public record. Upon receipt of your registration, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions for participating by telephone.
Following are brief extracts of some parts of the report I found interesting. Click here to jump down to the map with the 10 year gravel upgrade plan.
The primary conclusions (page 8):
- The total need to upgrade the remaining gravel roads was determined to be $9.7 million
- It is recommended that the Township further review their road maintenance budget to maintain their roads at a higher level of service. The needs over the next five years require a budget of approximately $4.2 million to make the necessary improvements.
- Two intersections along the 8th Concession may have deficient sightlines. It is recommended that the Township complete a detailed sightline analysis study for the intersections of 15th Sideroad and 8th Concession as well as 17th Sideroad and 8th Concession.
Surface Type Needs - Hardtop & Pavement (page 47):
The surface type of a roadway should be appropriately designed to accommodate the volume and type of traffic. According to the MTO guidelines (Inventory Manual for Municipal Roads, Ministry of Transportation, 1991), upgrading of surface treated roads to asphalt may be considered for roads experiencing high truck volumes or high truck loading, AADT values higher than 400 vpd or where high maintenance is an issue. For low volume rural roads, it is suggested that surface upgrading may be economical where the percentage of trucks exceed 10% of the AADT and is over 30 trucks per day.
Gravel roads are typically suitable for low truck traffic and AADT values of less than 200 vpd. Typically, surface treated roads are recommended for roadways that have an AADT between 200 and 400 vpd, with asphalt recommended for roads with AADTs higher than 400 vpd.
Truck volumes typically range from a low of 3% on low volume residential streets to a high of 15% or more on arterials and collector roads. Information on truck volumes on the Township’s roads was not available for this current study.
Based on the above surface type considerations, a review of the data in Appendix A indicates that there are a number of roads in the Township that presently meet these surface type criteria, as summarized in Table 4.
Where budgets allow, it is recommended that surface types be upgraded to meet the minimum desirable levels of service for surface types. However, where budget is the limiting factor, surface type standards may be reduced to tolerable standards, assuming that the road base has been properly designed and constructed and appropriate maintenance is applied. Where this lower standard surface type is used, a corresponding reduction in useful life is likely. In some areas, other constraints (e.g., ROW widths, horizontal or vertical curve deficiencies, etc.) may preclude the upgrading of such road sections without first addressing those factors.
Surface Type Needs - Gravel Roads (Page 78)
The surface type of a roadway should be appropriately designed to accommodate the
volume and type of traffic. According to the MTO guidelines (Inventory Manual for Municipal Roads, Ministry of Transportation, 1991), The surface type requirements are
as follows:
• Gravel roads are typically suitable for traffic volumes of less than 200 vehicles per
day (vpd), however, upgrades to hardtop may be considered if roadside environment
is semi-urban or for road network connectivity/hardtop continuity, subject to budget
constraints and desired Level of Service. To minimize maintenance concerns, it is
suggested that roads that have traffic volumes exceeding 200 vpd may be
considered for a hard top surface (i.e., surface treatment for roads with 200 to 400
vpd AADT and asphalt for roads with over 400 vpd AADT).
• Asphalt roads may be considered where there is a high percentage of truck traffic, to
maximize the road life.
Upgrading of gravel roads to asphalt may be considered for roads experiencing high
truck volumes or high truck loading, AADT volumes higher than 200 or where high
maintenance is an issue. For low volume rural roads, it is suggested that surface
upgrading may be economical where the percentage of trucks exceed 10% of the AADT
and is over 30 trucks per day.
Truck volumes typically range from a low of 3% on low volume residential streets to a
high of 15% or more on arterials and collector roads. Information on truck volumes on
the Township’s roads was not available for this current study and it is recommended that
future traffic counting work in the Township also delineate truck volumes, particularly if
consideration is being made to upgrade the road’s surface type. For low volume rural
roads, this study suggests that surface upgrading may be economical to consider where
the percentage of trucks exceed 10% of the AADT and is over 30 trucks per day.
Based on the above surface type considerations, a review of the data in Appendix A
indicates that there are 18 gravel roads in the Township that presently meet these
surface type criteria, as summarized in Table 12.
It is acknowledged that the Township plans to upgrade most, if not all, of its gravel
roads, as the budget allows, to improve the overall Level of Service provided by its road
network. Roads that are planned for upgrading should be reviewed at the detailed
design stage, to ensure that the geotechnical conditions and design conditions (e.g.,
widths, cross section geometry, vertical and horizontal alignments, etc.) are conducive to
such upgrading and / or increase the benchmark costs established in this study, to
account for any related upgrading required to support the upgraded surface type.
Gravel Conversion Plan (page 87)
A total of approximately 60.002 km of gravel roads was reviewed as part of this study.
Since most of the Township’s gravel roads are in good condition (GCR>60), the
remaining roads were prioritized based on non-condition related triggers such as local
knowledge of condition deterioration, maintenance demand and functionality as well as
proximity to the surrounding hardtop network. Occasionally roads were not
recommended for upgrading due to specific issues that may arise if the road is provided
with a hard top surface. These issues could consist of significant horizontal/vertical
alignment upgrading, roadside encroachment, as well as type of traffic utilizing the road.
Providing a hardtop surface on roads where speeding is currently an issue, or the focus
of a road is to serve access for local residents, upgrading to a hard top surface and
attracting other network traffic would not be considered a benefit. Table 16 and Figure
30 below outline the proposed roads to be upgraded as part of the 10-year plan. A full
spreadsheet version of the 10-year plan, along with an enlarged map can be found in
Appendix G.
