Barrie and Innisfil made the list. It's not a good list

Roads in Barrie and Innisfil made the CAA Worst Roads list this year

Duckworth Street in Barrie was named No. 3 on the provincial CAA Worst Roads list for 2018. Jessica Owen/ BarrieToday

Barrie and Innisfil both made the list this year – but it’s a list they may be ashamed to claim.

CAA released their annual Worst Roads lists last week with both Barrie and Innisfil cracking the Top 10 in all of Ontario.

"It's clear from the results of this year's campaign that there are several roads that continue to be an issue for the public despite appearing on the list many times," said Raymond Chan, a government relations specialist with CAA South Central Ontario.

Duckworth Street in Barrie appeared on the list last year and is No. 3 on the provincial list for 2018, along with holding the No. 1 position in the central region. Lockhart Street in Innisfil was ranked No. 10 in Ontario, and the Top 5 in the central region were all roads in Simcoe County – three from Barrie and two from Innisfil.

Ward 1 Coun. Bonnie Ainsworth indicated this week that Duckworth Street has been identified in the Capital Budget for several years as needing repair while design, property acquisitions as well as scheduled utility relocations have been ongoing.

“Construction had been targeted for 2019 but, happily, has just recently been bumped up to a 2018 start,” said Ainsworth.

A staff report regarding this advancement will be presented to General Committee for consideration on Monday night.

Ainsworth indicated that she has received many complaints about the road as ward councillor, especially while St. Vincent Street was recently resurfaced, but that there is a big difference between ‘resurfacing’ and ‘reconstruction’ when it comes down to dollars and cents.

“Resurfacing is a pre-emptive action costing thousands of dollars, while reconstruction is a replacement action costing millions of dollars with many complexities requiring engineering department attention,” she said.

While Bayfield Street landed at the No. 3 spot for the central region, work is underway on repairing it. According to the City of Barrie, the paving for Bayfield is slated to be completed by June 15.

Kelly Oakley, manager of planning and asset management for the City of Barrie, indicated this week that while the city pays attention to the CAA ranking, typically the city is ahead of the curve when it comes to knowing what roads need work in town.

“The city is always planning for the maintenance and repair of roadways to optimize road pavement conditions across Barrie,” she said.

Oakley also indicated that the city maintains a database of the city’s roads and their condition.

“Pavement condition is described using a Pavement Condition Index (PCI), measured out of 100, where 100 is new pavement. We typically undertake a pavement condition assessment of every road in Barrie every four years,” she said.

Over 3,500 roads were nominated from across the province this year, the highest number since the campaign's inception. Drivers accounted for over three-quarters of the votes cast, while roughly 9% of votes were from cyclists and a further 9% were from pedestrians.

In terms of the primary reason for selecting their road: 75% cited potholes, 14% highlighted limited or no cycling infrastructure, and 10% chose congestion as their primary issue.