Some work in the 10-year plan to maintain roads and related infrastructure might have to be deferred
Article by Valerie MacDonald
A Port Hope woman is lobbying Northumberland County not to permit ATVs on county roads after Hamilton Township decided in favour of allowing them on township roads for a one-year trial.
The trial period started April 1 and goes to Nov. 30, township staff told the News Now Network.
In her letter asking that the permission for AVT travel not be extended onto county roads, Susan Sinnott wrote: “Hamilton Township is going to request County Council permit ATVs on our country road….If Hamilton Township wants Off Road Vehicles on their roads, keep them in Hamilton Township….“I implore you not to allow these vehicles on County roads.”
She noted Port Hope does now allow them on its roads and that ATV operators can access the Ganaraska forest by trailering the vehicles.
Sinnott’s letter was reviewed by the county’s public works committee meeting on May 30 and a recommendation was adopted to have the county’s transportation staff bring a report back on the matter.
In other roads recommendations, following multiple complaints, speed limit reductions will go to Northumberland County Council on June 15 for its members to consider which would provide for:
1. a more continuous posting of 60 km/h between Port Hope and Welcome;
2. moving the 60 km/h speed reduction sign away from the large hill in Elizabethville;
3. moving the 60 km/h sign on County Road 28 in Port Hope to the intersection with County Road 74; and
4. Relocating the 50 km/h speed sign on County Road 65 in Elizabethville further south on County Road 9.
School and safety road zones are also being reviewed throughout the county, staff said.
And the public works committee was told, following a asset management plan review, that there is a $92-million shortfall in the 10-year plan to keep up its 32 km of paved urban and 371 km paved rural roads, 95 km of surface treated roads, 45 bridges, 68 culverts, 20 retaining walls, 1,184 storm sewers network structures and 32.5-km of piping.
As a result, some work will have to be deferred and some risk is a part of that, transportation staffer Cora Bevan reported.
A full presentation on the multi-million-dollar shortfall will go to the full county council.
