As the city prepares for the 2019 construction season, council needs to decide whether or not a median barrier is warranted on Rea Hill.
The stretch of road between South Porcupine and Schumacher is slated to be done this year as part of the ongoing Connecting Link project.
While Timmins council didn't make a decision on the design this week, there was debate about the cost of safety and ongoing cost of the concrete barriers.
In 2016, council of the day asked for the road design with an 800-metre barrier, which at the time had a $1-million price tag.
The estimated cost to do the work today, including rock removal and embankment widening, is $2.4 million.
Aecom's Valerie McGirr says based on the analysis, a median barrier isn't warranted.
She detailed the crash history on the road, as well as the number of vehicles travelling it every day.
“You all know about Rea Hill, Highway 101 has been the subject of investigations in the past and the grade of Rea Hill has been identified as a factor in collisions,” she told council.
She said the grade of the hill is about 5.4 per cent.
To compare it to other areas in the city, Algonquin's grade at Rea Street is about 4.6 per cent, it's 8.5 per cent east of Mountjoy, 5.6 per cent at Balsam and six per cent at the ONR bridge.
According to Aecom's report, from 2008 to 2018 there were 41 crashes in the Rea Hill area, including one fatal collision.
Of those, 23 were self-reported, with police attending 18 collisions. Seven of the crashes had injuries.
Based on current guidelines, she said barriers are optional if traffic volumes are less than 20,000 vehicles per day and it's predicted there will be about 14,000 vehicles per day by 2028.
Coun. Mickey Auger is in favour of a median. He said he's been involved in two crashes on the hill over the years.
“In 1992, I was coming back from the McIntyre arena on Rea Hill, a lady lost control, hit me head on, she died. So I go through there all the time and I know the conditions of the road and I always said there should be a barrier on that road because when you lose control of your car, you’re going to hit the wall and you’re not going to hit somebody else head on,” he said.
Later on, he questioned what a life's worth.
"I’ve seen a lot of people die on that hill since I’ve been here since 1975, so put a price on what a person’s life is worth. And I seen a young mother...get killed on Rea Hill and she had a young family, the barrier would probably have saved probably saved her. What’s the price of a life when you’re driving a car on a highway and you have a barrier and hit the barrier, that’s what I look at,” Auger said.
Public works manager Ken Krcel, who presented to council with McGirr, said there are cost savings that could be redirected to other projects if the medians aren't put in.
“My mom is one of the people that passed away on Rea Hill, she was killed in 2000. It’s just my personal belief that there’s been a lot of changes in technology in vehicles, the fact that the government has implemented graduated driving licenses for people, and a lot of times a lot of errors I believe that are made on the roads are due to lack of experience, lack of exposure and there’s also been changes to the minimum maintenance standards. I believe we do a better job maintaining the road than we have in the past,” said Krcel.
If council opts to keep the barriers in the design, there would also be ongoing costs.
The city would need to buy another blocker vehicle, and the highway would need extra sweeping and plowing. Any repairs to the barriers would also be an additional cost.
This would be the fourth phase of the Connecting Link project, which includes just over 21 kilometres of highway through the city. Last year's improvements included work from the Bruce Y to Legion Drive, as well as rehabilitating the Porcupine River Box Culvert.
