Road conditions dominated discussion during both formal business and question period when Grenville-sur-la-Rouge council met on Tuesday, February 13. A couple of citizens were particularly critical of the poor state of Chemin Kilmar. During the previous week, gravel sections of that road were extremely rough with dozens of large potholes.
A fine, red gravel had been previously added to some sections of the road. Mayor Tom Arnold said the red aggregate was unfortunately all that was available to the municipality at the time because the red material was the lowest tender received and the municipality is required by law to accept the lowest tender.
“We have to follow prices and the tenders,” Arnold said.
He added that the material was not what the municipality wanted for its roads.
“It wasn’t our preferred choice,” Arnold commented.
Arnold said more gravel is being procured to add to the rough sections of roads and assured it will not be the red material again.
A resident alleged the red gravel was not even legal. Arnold said it is legal, but just not as effective. He noted the red gravel is frequently used on provincial roads in Québec maintained by the Ministère des transports.
Meanwhile, engineering costs for rehabilitation on Chemin Kilmar and Chemin Harrington in Grenville-sur-la-Rouge have increased because of a previous decision to rehabilitate more sections of road than originally planned. Originally, the cost for HKR Engineering Service Consultation to do the work was $37,154. However, council has accepted the additional cost of $8,785.47.
Rehabilitation work on Chemin Kilmar and Chemin Harrington scheduled for back in 2020 was not completed due to complications associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Grenville-sur-la-Rouge council has had to cancel a previous application it had made for local roads funding from the Québec government. Arnold said that one of the reasons the work was cancelled is because the project cost doubled. He said the work will still be completed, but by law, council had to cancel the previous grant application in order to submit a new application.
Grenville-sur-la-Rouge has already received $2,185,976 from the Québec government for further work on Chemin Kilmar in 2024.
