There's no shortage of Barrie roads that have been deemed among the worst in the entire region, according to CAA's dubious list announced today.
Following Orillia's Laclie Street in the top spot for Central Region — a large area that includes all of Bruce County, Dufferin County, Grey County, Muskoka District Municipality, and Simcoe County — are four Barrie streets, including Essa Road, Huronia Road, Duckworth Street and Lockhart Road, in that order.
A portion of Essa Road is expected to get some TLC as part of the bridge replacement over Highway 400, while the city has also earmarked millions of dollars to rehabilitate Duckworth Street.
The Essa Road-Highway 400 interchange reconstruction project includes widening Essa to six lanes from four between the Bryne Drive, Ardagh Road intersection and the Fairview Road intersection, a multi-use pathway on Essa’s north side, along with replacing the Highway 400 bridge at Essa Road to accommodate the highway’s future widening to 10 lanes.
Meanwhile, work began in September 2018 on the extensive, two-phase project that will eventually reconstruct Duckworth Street from Bell Farm Road to St. Vincent Street. The entire project comes with an estimated $10-million price tag.
This year, across the province, roads in 182 municipalities were nominated by either drivers, cyclists or pedestrians.
Most voters — about 80 per cent — cited potholes as the primary reason they nominated a road, followed by poor maintenance (71 per cent) and a lack of cycling infrastructure (29 per cent).
"We know that through CAA's research, almost three-quarters (72 per cent) of Ontarians are venting about the state of our roads to either their spouses, friends or co-workers and not always to local government officials," says Teresa Di Felice, CAA's assistant vice-president of government and community relations.
Once the nominations were completed, the top-10 list was verified by the Ontario Road Builders’ Association (ORBA).
"The goal of the CAA Worst Roads campaign is to get roads repaired in a timely manner by working in partnership with government to invest in road maintenance, repair and replacement," says Bryan Hocking, ORBA's chief executive officer.
"The Ontario Road Builders' Association's role in this campaign is a technical one,” he explained, noting officials assess each road on the list, offer a life-cycle analysis, and analyze how long the road can last in its current condition and offer an explanation for its deterioration.
Since 2003, CAA's annual Worst Roads campaign has influenced change, notes the release. Repaving and repair work has been done as a result of the program.
This year, four out of 10 of the province’s worst roads are in Toronto. They are Eglinton Avenue West, Eglinton Avenue East, Lake Shore Boulevard East and Finch Avenue West.
