Working group created to develop road conversion plan

Luke Edwards, Post Contributor

Seemingly at a crossroads, councillors are hopeful a working group will come up with solutions that will make Norwich’s road conversion program more seamless.

Councillors at the June 24 meeting passed a motion that was initially brought forward at the June 3 meeting. It calls for a working group to be struck including two councillors, the appropriate staff, and potentially an outside consultant “to determine the most cost effective and appropriate reconstruction processes before moving forward with the gravel road conversion program.”

The two councillors who will sit on the group are Adrian Couwenberg and Lynne DePlancke, even though DePlancke opposed the motion in preference of a modified version of what staff originally recommended.

Council’s idea to form the group came about after a staff report in early June recommended postponing planned resurfacing projects for portions of Firehall Road and Beaconsfield Road. The original staff report said additional testing suggested those roads would require more extensive reconstruction. Moving ahead with what was originally planned could lead to issues on those roads similar to what happened when the township tried to resurface Curries Road.

An inadequate base level was blamed for the damage on Curries Road.

To avoid a repeat, staff recommended postponing the work on the two roads, and including funds in the 2026 budget for full reconstruction of those sections of Firehall and Beaconsfield, as well as including funds in next year’s budget to fix Curries Road.

However, some councillors said they were frustrated with the road conversion process, arguing some areas of the township have been ignored as well as having concerns about the balance between projects and project cost.

“I do believe in doing things right, but I also want to move forward with it,” said Coun. Shawn Gear.

DePlancke’s preferred route would have seen some work done this year, including preliminary work on Beaconsfield.

“We are fairly confident we could do the base this year and have it as a good solid base gravel road over the winter and then probably put the surface treatment on in the spring,” said CAO Matt Smith.

Under that plan, only a small section of Firehall Road would be worked on this year, and only because it would coincide with resurfacing plans for the fire hall’s parking lot.

DePlancke feared a working group would only amount to micromanaging and would accomplish little. Couwenberg said his intent wasn’t to micromanage the projects, but with limited resources he admitted micromanaging the funds was a part of it.

But Couwenberg nominated DePlancke for the group, saying it’ll be more successful if people with different perspectives contribute. While she seemed to remain skeptical, she accepted, saying she’ll give it a try.

Smith said he wasn’t immediately sure how the group would operate, and that they’ll have some early meetings to figure that out.

Mayor Jim Palmer, who also opposed forming the group, argued they’ll probably just end up back at the original option.

“I think we’re actually going to end up at Number 1 because it’s going to take so long to do this to get any approvals we might as well have done Number 1,” he said.