Stephen Vance, Staff
If you had travelled along Story Book Park Road, east of Concession 11, just a few months ago, you would have been greeted by a hand-painted sign on the side of the road that read ‘Welcome to Pothole Road ~ Worst Road in Meaford’, but no longer.
Residents of the 2.2 kilometre stretch of road had long lived with the frustration of a continuous battle with potholes that continued to show themselves no matter how often municipal crews arrived to fill them. But their frustrations were compounded last summer when, without much warning, the municipality pulverized their road, returning the hard surface to gravel.
While the plan to pulverize their road may have been a surprise to residents, the decision had been made at least two months prior. In a memo dated May 8, 2017, from Meaford Treasurer and Director of Infrastructure Management Darcy Chapman, council was advised of the plan to pulverize the more than two kilometres of Story Book Park Road east of Grey Road 11.
“Staff have been cold patching sections of Sideroad 23, Storybook Park Road and Euphrasia-St. Vincent Town Line for a while now with no progress. These sections were never constructed properly before being topped with surface treatment material which has contributed to the failing condition,” wrote Chapman in his May 8, 2017 memo. “Instead of allocating more man time and thousands of dollars towards cold patching, staff are of the opinion that grinding these sections of road would result in a more cost efficient way to maintain as a gravel surface. This would give the Municipality the flexibility needed until such time that a full reconstruct can be completed to adequately maintain these sections to the Minimum Maintenance Standards.”
Chapman noted in his memo that the decision would likely displease residents, but he argued that the municipality was wasting money by constantly filling potholes on the poorly constructed road.
Those residents were indeed displeased, and they attended council meetings to ensure their voices were heard. After much debate over several months at council, a solution was found when council approved a staff recommendation to test a new road surface product on four sections of road, including the pulverized section of Story Book Park Road, at a cost of $505,000.
At their May 14, 2018 meeting, council was told that staff had explored road surfacing options, and had been in contact with a company called Superior Road Products (SRP), which has a proprietary product known as Reclamite.
“Reclamite is composed of petroleum maltene fractions. Maltene fractions are components of all asphalt cement, and are responsible for the ability of asphalt to remain flexible. By adding back the missing maltene fractions to recycled asphalt product (RAP), Reclamite re-introduces its ability to be tight, cohesive, and flexible, as well as being waterproof,” Chapman told council in his report.
Chapman told council that, in addition to offering the flexibility that is lacking in tar and chip road surfaces often used on rural roads, the Reclamite and recycled asphalt process offers a service life of 10-12 years; less than the 15-20 years of a new asphalt surface, but significantly longer service life than a tar and chip surface. Chapman, along with other municipal staff members, travelled to Gravenhurst to inspect roads that had been surfaced with the product and they were impressed.
A few weeks ago the work was completed on Story Book Park Road, and resident Hugh Greenwood sent an email to some members of council thanking them for returning their road to a hard surface.
“What an outstanding process and result for Story Book Park Road, Concession 5 and in the Town of Meaford. I am passing along praise from all of my neighbour ratepayers for the process, which in effect, has given the roads an asphalt surface, far superior to the tar and chip surface we had before it was pulverized in 2017, and proper shoulders,” Greenwood wrote to members of council. “I have been asked to pass along the sincere thanks to each of you, for your support, patience and persistence in achieving the improvements to ours, and the other roads in the Municipality. Our thanks also to the Meaford staff who researched and ultimately found the process that has produced the great results, at substantially less cost, and the staff who worked so hard on carrying out the reconstruction of the base and the new surface.”
Just as municipal employees had travelled to Muskoka to inspect roads surfaced with the new product, Greenwood also found himself in that area this summer, and he heard positive reports about the product.
“Interestingly, I just returned from a family vacation in Muskoka,” Greenwood told The Independent. “While there, I happened to bump into a member of a Huntsville roads crew and he said the Reclamite is standing up far better than any process they had used in the past and, from his understanding, at substantial saving. I also met a Huntsville resident who lives on one of the roads treated with the Reclamite process eight or nine years ago and he said it is almost as good today as it was when his road was resurfaced.”
