The future of the West Back Line is on the radar for Grey Highlands council.
At its meeting on April 5, council approved a plan to move forward with a project to replace a pair of culverts on West Back Line just off of County Road 4 near Ceylon. Municipal staff and consulting engineers have completed 60 per cent of the design work for the project, which is estimated to cost $450,000.
At the same time, council also passed a motion to seek a delegation with the Ministry of Transportation to discuss the future of the road. Mayor Paul McQueen suggested the municipality request a meeting with the ministry as the road has been used as an alternate route to Highway 10 in the event the highway is closed.
“We talked about this six or seven years ago,” said McQueen.
During the design work for the culvert project, staff and consultants did look at the possibility of doing more extensive work to re-align the road, but determined the current usage and traffic did not warrant the extra work.
The director of transportation and public spaces, Chris Cornfield, said major upgrades to the road should first be discussed with the province.
“I’m not sure the municipality should bear all the costs of an (emergency detour route) for a provincial highway,” said Cornfield.
Council also requested that municipal staff initiate conversations with staff from the Township of Southgate about the future of the road. West Back Line runs parallel to Highway 10 through Southgate and Grey Highlands.
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In other roads-related news, Grey Highlands council awarded a tender for a new tandem truck with combination dump, spreader body and snow plow harness to Lewis Motor Sales Inc. for a total cost of $395,117.70.
The price includes an extended seven-year warranty for the new snow plow.
The total budget for the vehicle was $375,000. Staff budgeted to receive $25,000 for the sale of the truck the new vehicle is replacing. However, staff said they now believe the municipality can get more than $25,000 for the used vehicle.
Any difference between the sale proceeds/budgeted amount for the purchase and the final cost of the new truck will be made up from reserve funds if necessary.
