A $10-million project to widen Duckworth Street and install a transmission watermain will make it less like a war zone, says the councillor who represents that area in the city's east end.
“It’s like living in Afghanistan over there and that’s because, in the past, what happened is for a lot of councils, fixing roads isn’t sexy,” Ward 1 Coun. Bonnie Ainsworth said.
“So what they did is let them get beyond the point of repair and now they have to be reconstructed,” she added. “Once you get into reconstruction, you’re in the millions, not thousands anymore. These roads have been able to deteriorate until they died.”
Construction along Duckworth Street, which is expected to last two years, is set to begin in August and will extend from Bell Farm Road to St. Vincent Street.
The work will be done in two phases, beginning with the southern portion in the first year followed by the northern portion of Duckworth Street.
The project will include widening of the road and sidewalk, buffered bike lanes, new water services, replacement of sanitary sewers, street-lighting upgrades and new traffic signals.
Ainsworth said the work is long overdue.
“It’s an arterial road and it’s a very important road in Barrie,” she said. “Visitors coming off the highway use it to get downtown and it certainly doesn’t represent the city very well. It’s an embarrassment, really.
“It’s just going to be so much better now,” Ainsworth added.
Duckworth Street was ranked the third worst road in South Central Ontario by CAA in its 2018 report.
Ainsworth has been pushing to get the work done on Duckworth Street for a few years and was glad to see the project was moved up to begin earlier than expected.
“Finally, finally,” she said. “When I came back on council in 2010, that was obviously one of the roads that was the worst.
“Often, in the east end we have to compete with the downtown roads, because they’re even worse, but we’re getting there,” Ainsworth added. “(Duckworth Street) did get some notoriety (by being included in the CAA report), but I think staff does them as fast as they can.”
Ainsworth, who says she won’t be seeking re-election in her ward this coming fall, joked that it’s almost like an early retirement present.
“They said it was going to be 2019, but I’m retiring this year, so I’m just so delighted,” she said. “I fight for all the roads in the east end.”
Several bylaws were also passed Monday night by city council to expropriate portions of properties along Duckworth Street, as well as Steel Street, Grove Street and Napier Street, in order to facilitate the project.
