BARRHEAD - Residents in the Misty Ridge area are the latest beneficiaries of the County of Barrhead's inability to reach the necessary land agreements for the Naples Road reconstruction project.
On July 2, councillors authorized the municipality to enter into agreements with several landowners for compensation for crop damages, landscape and borrow pits, and fencing replacements relating to the reconstruction of roughly 3.2 kilometres on Township Road 622 starting at the ski hill corner.
The cost to complete the project is pegged at roughly $455,000.
Public works manager Travis Wierenga said the road has been on the municipality's radar for some time and was already on the municipality's 2024 to 2026 road replacement schedule.
"The road is terrible through there, with it cracking and a whole bunch of other fun stuff happening to it in the past," he said, adding staff were pleased that they could come to the necessary agreements to make the project happen.
Wierenga said that the compensation paid to the landowners is the standard rate set by the council: $300 per acre for crop damages and $500 and $1,000 per acre for landscape borrow and borrow areas, respectively.
He added that the municipality supplies the posts and labour for replacing fences, while the landowner provides the labour.
"We should have decent dirt for the job," Wierenga said.
He added that the vast majority of the landowners in the area were cooperative and were able to reach the necessary agreements quickly; there was one holdout.
"One acreage owner on this project has been fairly uncooperative. We have 17 feet of road widening to do, and we should have room to work around the area without any issues, but we did make an effort," he said
Wierenga said he hopes to come to council with the final project to fill in for the cancelled Naples Road project soon.
He also said he hopes work on the project will start soon as they hope to have it complete before the end of harvest.
"We are a little bit behind the eight-ball after having to rejig the construction schedule [due to the Naples Road cancellation]," Wierenga said. "There is a bit of a hold-up due to Telus having to put out a temporary line, which they hope to have done sometime in July because we don't want to block off access to the road during harvest."
In late March, councillors instructed public works staff to find potential road reconstruction projects to replace roughly eight kilometres of Range Road 25 from Highway 18 to Township Road 605 to a high-grade gravel road.
In early May, councillors similarly approved that the county enter into a similar agreement with multiple property owners for crop damages, landscape and borrow pits, and fencing replacements relating to the reconstruction of roughly two miles or 3.2 km of Range Road 50 north of Township Road 580 and south of Highway 654.
A borrow pit, also known as a sandbox, is an area where material (usually soil, gravel, or sand) is dug for use at another location. The municipality enters into agreements with nearby property owners on these projects as it is more efficient and cost-effective to use materials in the immediate vicinity than to incur the added transportation costs.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
