‘Horrific potholes’ prompt urgent road repairs

Road maintenance workers with Norfolk County fill in a pothole on Temperance Street in Waterford on Wednesday.

J.P. Antonacci

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

After a punishing winter, Norfolk County’s roads are in a sorry state.

“There is a ginormous pothole on West Temperance Street,” said Waterford-area Coun. Kim Huffman at the Tuesday, March 24 council meeting.

“That whole road is bad, but there is a horrific pothole there.”

Public works boss Andrew Grice promised to get “on it,” and by Wednesday morning, that pothole - about the width of a standard sedan - was no more.

But plenty remain, prompting councillors to free up $1 million to spend on urgent road repairs, from filling potholes and pruning storm-damaged trees to resurfacing longer stretches of roads that show extensive wear and tear.

“Winter was not kind to Norfolk County’s roads and infrastructure,” Coun. Chris Van Paassen said during the March 10 council-in-committee meeting, when he suggested staff direct some of this year’s expected operating budget surplus into “an aggressive road-patching plan.”

Frequent freeze-thaw cycles created more potholes, council heard, while a provincewide shortage of road salt forced Norfolk’s roads crew to adjust their road maintenance strategy on the fly.

Grice came to council on Tuesday with a list of repairs to high-traffic roads “that would benefit the largest number of users.”

Council signed off on the plan to smooth over sections of Ireland Road, part of Argyle Street in Simcoe and Main Street in Waterford from Green to Church streets with hot-mix paving.

Workers will apply surface treatment on a four-kilometre stretch of Charlotteville Road 5 starting at Turkey Point Road, part of Teeter Road in Teeterville, and Front Road between Turkey Point Road and Spooky Hollow Road.

Grice and chief administrator Al Meneses cautioned council that diverting funds to fix roads flies in the face of Norfolk’s policy of using budgets surpluses to replenish reserve accounts and pay down debt.

But Van Paassen said the “rough” state of the roads justified making an exception and spending some of the surplus today.

Coun. Linda Vandendriessche said last year’s roadwork was subpar in some areas, with “excessive gravel” poured on the shoulder of Highway 59 ending up on people’s front yards after snowplows cleared the road.

Darnell Lambert, Norfolk’s director of engineering, agreed the 2025 road resurfacing program “did not fare out so well” and several fixes “did not work as expected.”

The contractor “is committed to rectify the issues on a number of roads that were identified,” Lambert said.

Residents will get help from the county to clean their cars of “splashed-up tar” and clear their ditches of gravel due to botched treatment of the road shoulders, he added.

“We will work with the residents to make that right,” Grice said.

“That was not their fault that happened. We just ask that people remain patient with us, as it will take us some time to get to it.”

- J.P. Antonacci is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.