August 26, 2011

REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY OF YORK

Workers on Stouffville Road near McCowan Road in the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario, about 40 kilometres north of downtown Toronto, laying geotextile cloth in marshy areas before filling.

FEATURE | Roadbuilding

Environmental constraints present challenges to York Region in Ontario road widening project

DAN O’REILLY

correspondent

The rural town of Whitchurch-Stouffville is inching towards a more urban future.

Its main commuter — and arguably one of its most scenic — road is being expanded from two to four lanes as the municipality grows.

The eight-kilometre stretch of Stouffville Road from just east of Highway 404 to Highway 48 is being widened to meet increased traffic demands, says Salim Alibhai, York Region’s manager of engineering.

An environmental assessment a few years ago predicted by 2021 some 1,100 to 1,900 vehicles an hour will be travelling along the road compared to 800 vehicles at the time the assessment was underway, he said.

The road widening is being carried out in three separate phases. After two years of work, the first phase from McCowan Road to Highway 48 was completed in the summer of 2010. The current Phase 2 expansion from just west of Woodbine Avenue to McCowan started earlier this year and is expected to be completed by year’s end. The contractor is Kapp Construction.

The site is about 40 kilometres north of downtown Toronto.

In the spring of 2012 the final phase from the entrance to the Bruce’s Mill Conservation Area to just west of Woodbine Avenue will commence.

The new lanes will be opened by the end of that year, although some clean-up work and landscaping will take the project into the summer of 2013, says Alibhai.

Although the terrain the lanes are being built through doesn’t have a lot of major physical constraints, there are several challenges. Nine of 14 water crossings are regulated areas and permits are required for culvert installation from either the Toronto Region Conservation Authority, the Ministry of the Environment or the Ministry of Natural Resources, he says.
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All in-water work has to be conducted from July to September, so as not to interfere with the fish spawning.

And although construction wasn’t delayed, the permit approval process was temporarily slowed down when the status of the redside dace fish was changed from threatened to endangered on the Species at Risk in Ontario list in 2009, says Alibhai. 

There were also two locations where marshy materials were encountered and that required the excavation and removal of approximately 1,000 cubic metres of the material.

To minimize the construction impact on both drivers and local residents, the region requires contractors to adhere to a number of conditions.

“Entrances to homes and businesses can’t be blocked and if a lane has to be closed it can only be from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.”

Overall cost of the project, including consulting engineering fees, utility relocations, property acquisitions and construction, is $54 million, he says.

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