As the saying goes, timing is everything.
And in this case, Bradford could save about $438,000 by taking a detour from its road construction schedule.
Based on a report from deputy chief administrative officer Mahesh Ramdeo, council approved $550,000 in funding to include the rehabilitation of Reagens Industrial Parkway in the contract with Lisbon Paving for the recently completed rehabilitation of Line 8 and Sideroad 10, during a recent council meeting.
While work on Reagens was originally planned for 2026 at an estimated cost of $988,000, the nearby work presented an opportunity for “synergies” and Lisbon agreed to complete the work on Reagens this year using the same rates as agreed to for the Line 8 project which resulted in “significant savings” to the town, according to Ramdeo’s report.
Deputy Mayor Raj Sandhu said the town was getting “a heck of a deal,” since the work would be done “way cheaper” than previously expected, and Ward 4 Coun. Joseph Giordano suggested that where possible, more projects should be clustered to reduce costs.
The town also had more than enough excess funding available for Reagens as staff had decided to defer until 2026 or 2027 the $677,000 worth of rehabilitation work planned for this year on Simcoe Road between Centre Street and Luxury Avenue.
Otherwise, they worried that once rehabilitated, the road could be damaged by construction traffic as the County of Simcoe continues work on the affordable housing development at the corner of Simcoe Road and Marshview Boulevard, plus work is anticipated to begin next year on the new town hall just up the street.
Even councillors who generally oppose deviating from the list of which roads are repaired seemed to be in favour, such as Ward 5 Coun. Peter Ferragine.
“This just made a lot of sense,” he said.
Mayor James Leduc thanked staff for “pivoting so fast,” and “making this work for us.”
“These are great opportunities,” he said. “This one just fell into our lap.”
The $677,000 originally budgeted for Simcoe was returned to the 2024 Roads Rehabilitation Program account, from which the $550,000 for Reagens was approved.
