Norwich approves new gravel road conversion policy

Luke Edwards, Post Contributor

A new policy will help determine which gravel roads in Norwich will get converted to tar and chip, and the method for doing so.

Last year the township created a small working group to look at the gravel conversion program. At the time the township was dealing with a project on Curries Road where an inappropriate base caused problems after the road was resurfaced and staff testing suggested the same could happen on Firehall Road and Beaconsfield Road.

The group met regularly and staff presented a report outlining some recommendations based on those meetings at the Feb. 10 council meeting.

CAO Matt Smith described the proposed policy as having two sections: a road selection mechanism and construction method. Road selection would be based on a scoring system that takes a variety of factors - including, among others, overall and large vehicle volume, road readiness and connectivity - into account.

The policy also described two methods for hard surfacing: a full base reconstruction and a partial base repair. Which method used would be the result of base testing to ensure a proper 16-inch base layer exists.

After a lengthy discussion by councillors, an amendment from Coun. Adrian Couwenberg added a third method when testing reveals a base level between 12 and 16 inches. In that case the township could choose to top up the base level to reach the 16-inch threshold instead of digging everything out and relaying the base.

The amended policy will come back to council at a future meeting.