City hall has been waiting for nearly two years for the Ministry of Highways to fix the “roller coaster” road that is Ninth Avenue Southwest — and those repairs are coming this year.
During its regular meeting in July 2021, city council submitted an expression of interest to the Ministry of Highways through the Urban Highway Connector Program (UHCP) to address Highway 363/Ninth Avenue Southwest from city limits to Warner Street and Valley View Drive.
Based on the agreement that the municipality and ministry signed in 2015, the province agreed to make annual payments of $99,841 to help maintain urban connector roads. Since then, rehabilitation of the North Service Road and Main Street North has been completed.
In 2016, Associated Engineering assessed Highway 363/Ninth Avenue Southwest from Brenda Street to Vaughan Street and rated the southbound road a five or fair condition, a council report said.
In 2020, city hall assessed that road to the Warner Street/Valley View Drive intersection and rated it a two or very poor.
Research into the Highway 363/Ninth Avenue Southwest location confirmed that the ministry had been aware of the slope instability and slumping issues, with structural repairs and slope monitoring going back to 1997, the report added. The ministry later hired a consultant in 2017 to provide geohazard remediation of the area.
Coun. Jamey Logan raised the issue of Ninth Avenue Southwest during council’s April 10 regular meeting and wondered if there was new information with its repairs.
The ministry is obligated to fix the road under the UHCP agreement, while city administration has been lobbying the province for years to include that street on its list of capital projects, said Bevan Harlton, director of engineering.
“They are planning to remediate the slope failures this year, with paving to follow next year. We received 90 per cent of the design in February this year, which we reviewed with them and passed comments back,” he continued.
“We anticipate they will have the design finalized soon and will hopefully get the tender out sooner rather than later.”
The ministry told the Express by email that it is finalizing the design for the slope stabilization project and plans to tender the project this spring or early summer for completion this year. The contractor will determine when the work begins but must complete the initiative this year.
“Ideally, slope stabilization will correct issues in a timely manner, but it can take some time,” the ministry said. “If repaving occurred immediately and issues arose, it would have the potential to negatively impact paving and likely need to be redone.
“As a result, the ministry waits enough time after the slope stabilization project is completed to allow for testing and analysis to ensure the ground is stable.”
Repaving could occur after these actions, but the ministry may need to adjust the work’s design and tender based on ground movement or issues resulting from the stabilization project, the email said.
The earliest the paving could be completed is summer 2024 because of the time to design and tender the construction work. Yet, all this could change based on the findings from the analyses.
The ministry added that the tender process would determine the final cost of the slope stabilization and paving projects.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, April 24.
