The County of Simcoe’s largest road project ever — along County Road 90 between Barrie and Angus — is expected to be completed by November, with some final housekeeping items being addressed at the county council table this week.
On Tuesday, county council voted to declare three properties along County Road 90 surplus, which were purchased to accommodate the County Road 90 widening project.
The county plans to sell the properties – at 5493, 5499 County Road 90 and 400 Mill St. – and put the proceeds from the sale back into the roads contingency reserve.
With the project slated to wrap up in November, more than eight years after it started, the county can now turn its sights to other road projects.
“It’s nice to see a project that’s been going on for this long finally come to completion,” Christian Meile, the county's director of transportation and engineering, said with a laugh. “I wish I could say it’s a relief, but we have so many other projects that our focus will just be (shifting) now.”
The County Road 90 widening project is approximately 12 kilometres in length, widening the stretch between Angus and Barrie from two to five lanes, and has cost $85 million.
It is the largest road project in terms of size and cost the county has undertaken in its history.
Early stages of construction on the project began in 2011. In the eight years since, the budget for the project has changed on an annual basis.
As of the most recent numbers seen by county council, the project will be completed on time and on budget.
On Tuesday, Miele said paving is underway on the final section of the project.
All five lanes are poised to be completely open by the end of October or beginning of November.
“There’s always small deficiencies and little repairs or warranty work that goes on after that, but substantial completion will be done by the end of the year,” he said.
Some of the challenges with the project were a large number of homes located along County Road 90 that were quite close to the existing roadway or close to required bridge works, and the rural setting involved consideration of wells and septic systems along the widening area.
The two properties at 5493 and 5499 County Road 90 were purchased to accommodate a jog in road placement.
“The main reason we had to purchase those properties is we had to shift the road a little bit to the south and there would have been too much impact on those two properties,” said Meile. “We were actually approached by the homeowners and it was easier for us to purchase the properties outright with plans to sell them as surplus later.”
The county tries to avoid having to purchase full properties when doing road widening or expansion, Miele said, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.
“We try to avoid it because of the cost,” he said.
According to the county’s staff report, as part of any road-widening project, it is necessary for the county to acquire land from property owners along the frontage of the road to be widened. In some cases, the impact of the widening and the construction will interfere significantly with the owner’s ability to continue to use and enjoy their property.
Now that construction is almost complete and the required road widenings have been transferred to the county, the impacted properties can be sold as the remaining land serves no municipal purpose.
County council committee of the whole voted to deem the three properties surplus to sell.
The decision will be ratified at the Sept. 24 council meeting.
