Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman says the city is working to get off the CAA’s Worst Roads’ top 10.
Duckworth Street tied for Number 8 in Ontario; it also ranked Number 1 for Central Ontario, a region that takes in Simcoe County, Muskoka and Bruce, Grey and Dufferin counties.
“Barrie has a big backlog of roadwork due to years of underinvestment,” said Lehman.
“Through the infrastructure levy and shifting money to repair, we’re doing more roads each year, but it’ll take many years to catch up.”
Barrie introduced the one-per-cent infrastructure levy two years ago, in a bid to get more money for roads, as well as watermain, works.
Each year, the CAA encourages the public to submit candidate roads for the dis-honour and online, people vote for the various routes needing more than just a resurfacing.
Rounding out the regional top five are Morrow Road, Lockhart Road, Hurst Drive and Mapleview Drive East.
“Two of the roads are under construction now – Morrow and Mapleview,” the mayor added.
“Duckworth is in design and Lockhart will be done as part of the annexed lands upgrades.”
The city annexed portions of Lockhart Road from Innisfil in 2010 and plans are in the making to upgrade water mains, add a reservoir and expand the road.
The capital plan sets out years and amounts, depending on the phase of the project, which can range from design to watermain installation to roadway expansion. A total of $115 million is forecast for the watermain and roadway upgrades on Lockhart.
The plan for Duckworth is to do $4.4 million worth of work in each of 2019 and 2020.
Hurst Drive, however, is not in the city’s capital plan until 2020 for design and 2021 for construction.
Work on Lockhart Drive in Barrie is slated for 2019 to 2026, depending on location.
The capital plan projects the city will spend $180,000 on fixing Morrow this year.
Mapleview work is underway and more is slated each year until 2020.
This year isn’t the first time some city roads have made it to the top of the worst list.
Anne Street was a favourite road to hate for years. Drivers complained not just about its pothole-ridden asphalt, but about confusing lane markings between Dunlop and John streets. While repairing watermains and widening the road, the city added lanes so the street didn't narrow near John Street.
Anne Street made the list as far back as 2008 and most recently in 2015.
“Also, Barrie is the only big city in the Central Region, so I’m not surprised we got the most votes,” he added.
