14 June 2007
Cambridge Mayor Has Delta Blues
Cambridge Ontario - Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig says his
city can't cope with the closing of Hespeler Road for two weeks while a bridge is built over the train tracks north of the Delta
intersection.
The city's busiest road is expected to close for up to 14 days in August 2010, as workers come to a critical point in the
$21.5-million project.
Construction is expected to start in spring 2009.
Talk of closing Hespeler Road - even with lots of warning and detour signs - left Craig aghast.
"I don't think the city can handle it," he told Waterloo Region officials at a city council meeting this week.
"I think it's really quite unacceptable at this point. It's like shutting down Highway 8 for two weeks. You wouldn't do that in
Kitchener. It's that serious."
He challenged regional staff to find an alternative to strangling the city's central traffic artery immediately north of the
Dundas-Water-Coronation-Hespeler intersection. He urged them to talk with emergency services about the impact such a
closing would have on public safety.
There's no alternative to closing Hespeler Road, said John Stephenson, the region road engineer overseeing the project.
"It's been looked at six ways from Sunday. Any way we look at it, there is some potential for inconvenience."
Two weeks is a "conservative estimate" of the time needed to sort out the confluence of multiple essential tasks in the
18-month job.
"We didn't want to tell people it would take a couple of days and then it takes longer," he said.
For years, more than 20 slow freight trains a day have trundled across the four-lane Hespeler Road, loaded with hundreds
of cars made at the booming Toyota plant on Fountain Street.
It's the only CP Rail line between the plant and CP's main Ontario line crossing the city.
Traffic backups morning and afternoon are the norm, sometimes creating jams that stretch for kilometres and last 20 minutes.
The tracks have to be kept open during the project so Toyota can keep deliveries on track to car dealerships across North America. Then
there's the challenge of squeezing in a bridge that doesn't landlock adjoining properties and close side streets, Stephenson said.
The solution he's designing is a complex one.
First, a four-lane road detour must be built immediately west of the train crossing.
Then, excavation will start for a new section of track 4.5 metres below grade. At the same time, workers will start piling dirt on
Hespeler Road for abutments that will carry a bridge 2.5 metres above today's street level.
In August 2010, during a regular factory shutdown at Toyota, the trains won't be moving and Stephenson said critical parts of the
project should fall into place. The road detour must close to allow the railway trench excavation to finish and new tracks to be put in
place. As that happens, the old tracks will be ripped out to allow final work on the new southern bridge approach.
"I wouldn't call it a mad dash. It will be a very well-timed operation," said Stephenson.
Whenever Hespeler Road closes, local ambulance and fire officials say it won't cause many problems.
"We avoid Hespeler Road pretty religiously (currently)," said John Prno, regional ambulance manager.
"I don't think that's going to change much."
There are paramedic stations north and south of the Delta, so response times shouldn't be unduly affected, he said.
City firefighters, too, should be able to detour around an extended closure if they have warning, said fire Chief Terry Allen.
"We'd rather have to put up with that (closure) for two weeks, than starting off and suddenly you're stopped by a train. We've had
that happen, too."
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