Kilmar Road was crowned as this year’s worst road in Quebec and council wants to lose that crown. At the July 11 council meeting, elected officials were presented a draft by-law concerning the speed and use of the Grenville-sur-la-Rouge (GSLR) road network. The goal of the by-law is to restrain certain uses of the roads so that they have a longer lifespan.

The proposed by-law states that a limit of 30 km/h would be imposed on Main Street. Kilmar and Harrington road would have a 70 km/h limit for regular vehicles. Trucks and utility vehicles will be barred from using any municipal road except Kilmar and Harringtons road where there will be a speed limit of 50 km/h.

They will also be able to use Concession 4, Edina East, Rawcliff and Scotch Road. The use of local roads for trucks and utility vehicles will be permitted if the trucks are picking up or delivering goods (raw materials are not permitted) or if they need to fulfill a service call.

“Last year, the municipality paid an engineering firm to examine Kilmar Road. We evaluated the cost of repairing the road at $16 million. We received a $5 million-dollar grant for the ministry [of transportation] over five years. So in order to tackle the work that needs to be done on Kilmar Road, we needed to prioritize the work,” says Bertrand.

At the same council meeting, a notice of motion was presented by the town’s executive director, Jean-François Bertrand, stating that once the town will have the reports and bids from the engineering firm, they will proceed to open a tender in order to repair the worst sections of Kilmar Road.

“The council decided that the priority was the section between the 148 and the 50. We will not be paving this time, so the road will go back, or remain gravel. The point is that we would rather spend the money tackling the foundation of the road, which will guarantee a longer lifespan, than asphalting to have it break up in three or five years. We will only be asphalting crucial segments of the road where there are hills, for example, but for most of the road, it will be gravel.”

Once the work on Kilmar Road is done, council will look for guidance from the engineers at MRC Argenteuil to determine what road should be tackled next.

“If there are grants offered in five or six years for paving, we will obviously be ready to benefit from those grants, but until then our priority is road stability and the safety of road users,” concluded Bertrand.