Grey County is going to be improving a 35.5-kilometre stretch of the CP Rail Trail after council approved a tender for the work.
County council voted at its meeting on Thursday to award an $836,287 contract to Bluewater Landscaping and Construction to complete the grading, stone dust resurfacing and compacting of the Grey County CP Rail Trail from south of Berkeley to Dundalk during the 2022 and 2023 construction seasons.
County council was presented two trail maintenance options — to complete a 20-kilometre section or the remaining 35.5-kilometres — and opted against a staff recommendation to only complete a shorter section for now until a report back to investigate options to lower the costs of improving and maintaining the CP Rail Trail.
The entire Grey County CP Rail Trail is 77-kilometres long and runs from Owen Sound to Dundalk. The county has been gradually completing grading and stone dust resurfacing work to it.
Grey County’s Manager of Planning Services Scott Taylor says in a typical year the county would complete about three to five kilometres of the trail, but received approval for a federal Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program grant of $201,476 which requires at least 20 kilometres to be done.
The cost for this type of rail trail improvement and maintenance work has essentially doubled since 2019.
Taylor says in years prior to the Covid pandemic, Grey County paid around $10,000 to $12,000 per kilometre and now the range is around $23,000 to $25,000.
In his report to council, Taylor recommends only completing 20 kilometres of trail at this time and says staff want to explore other options the lower costs to improve and maintain the CP Rail Trail and then report back to council.
He says county staff reached out to other trail authorities to learn more about their costs and trail maintenance approaches.
“One of the things that came forward loud and clear is that everybody’s costs are going up. That’s no secret,” Taylor explains. “The other thing that came forward was those that don’t allow motorized users on their trails, particularly motorized users in the fall, spring and summer months, have significantly reduced trail maintenance budgets versus those that allow for motorized users like ATVs in the non-winter months.”
But, Southgate deputy mayor Brian Milne says it’s “high time” this project gets done. He moved an amendment that was passed by council to proceed with the completion of the remaining 35.5-kilometres of the rail trail.
“We’ve dragged this on for, I don’t know how many years. The residents at the north end of the county have had the benefit of a wonderful trail for a number of years,” County councillor and Southgate deputy mayor Brian Milne says. “I think it’s time we allow the rest of the county, the south end, to have access to a lovely trail as well.”
County councillor and Hanover mayor Sue Paterson voted against pursuing the more ambitious, expensive trail improvement option: “I don’t think this is the time we should be draining our reserves before we’ve received the report from staff on how they can save money going forward. This would be the appropriate time to do the first part, the 20 kilometres, and allow staff to come back with a report to share with us about how we can save money.”
A breakdown in Taylor’s report on how the county would finance the option pursued by council says more than $513,000 would come from reserves. The federal grant would cover just over $201,000, more than $125,000 is from development charges and $95,000 is already allocated in the 2021 and 2022 budgets combined for trail maintenance.