{"id":20607,"date":"2018-05-10T10:37:21","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T14:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20607"},"modified":"2018-05-10T10:37:21","modified_gmt":"2018-05-10T14:37:21","slug":"changes-proposed-after-horror-story-on-brookland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/changes-proposed-after-horror-story-on-brookland\/","title":{"rendered":"Changes proposed after \u201chorror story\u201d on Brookland"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Long delayed and bigger-than-expected reconstruction works on Brookland Avenue last year left business owners and residents alike angry with how things went down. From Councillor Wendy Gaertner\u2019s perspective, it was nothing short of a \u201chorror story\u201d for all concerned. Now, changes are being proposed to ensure these situations don\u2019t pop up again.
\nThis week, Council will consider a number of changes to how the Town approaches road reconstruction projects, including a more stringent procurement process for contractors, full traffic management plans, and provision for damages to be paid by the contractor.
\nResidents last year did not hesitate to express their frustration with reconstruction of Brookland, but the matter came to a head at the Council table after the owners of the nearby Yonge Street Winery cited financial losses resulting from consumers not being to able to access their store.
\n\u201cThe main concerns from the residents in the Brookland Avenue area included the project duration, traffic and access matters, business disruption with resultant business loss, the adequacy of the contractor\u2019s actions, schedule delays and overall contractor performance,\u201d said Anca Mihail, Manager of Engineering and Capital Delivery for the Town of Aurora, in her report to Council. \u201cThe scheduling delays were mostly due to the very wet summer of 2017, with a very high number of rain days (28 in total) that impacted and delayed the culvert replacement work. The replacement of the [sanitary sewer, the storm sewer and watermain], as well as the road work, could not start until the two culverts were replaced. The schedule delays intensified the disruption to both residents and business owners and there were complaints regarding noise, dust, mud on the street, storefront disruption, difficult pedestrian traffic access, as well as difficult access into the commercial plaza. Also, the size of the required work zone and the narrow right-of-way of Brookland Avenue intensified the construction disruption to residents and the general public.\u201d
\nOne way to right any future wrongs, she said, is to require all potential contractors to issue a pre-qualification, which would allow for the evaluation of all contractors based on specific criteria as well as their expertise to perform the work, including capacity requirements, before they can even submit a bid to take on the project.
\n\u201cPre-qualifying criteria are project-specific to ensure an alignment between the performance requirements of the project with the capabilities, capacity and experience of the contractors bidding the job in order to confidently secure compliant contractors,\u201d she said. \u201cAdditional criteria can be considered on a project-specific basis.\u201d
\nFor significant projects, a Traffic Management Plan will, pending Council\u2019s approval this week, be required. Currently, traffic control plans are the norm for outlining construction work zones and proper procedures and appropriate signage for closing traffic lanes during the construction projects.
\n\u201cFor projects where the traffic impact of a construction project is considered to be significant and extending beyond the limits of the work zone, a more comprehensive site and area specific Traffic Management Plan can be developed by the contractor prior to the start of construction,\u201d said Ms. Mihail. \u201cThe ultimate objective of the Traffic Management Plan is to ensure that road safety is maintained for the public and construction workers.\u201d
\nThroughout the process, improved communication is recommended both within Town Hall and with members of the public, including the creation of a Road Reconstruction page on the Town\u2019s website and regular direct communications to area businesses and residents.
\nThe recommendations in the report were received positively by Council members at last week\u2019s General Committee meeting, but some thought these measures could go further.
\n\u201cI was involved in this project when it didn\u2019t start on time, from the beginning of July, all the way through to the fall,\u201d said Councillor Gaertner. \u201cThis project was a horror story and my opinion is when we\u2019re looking at ways to improve how we handle these kinds of projects there has to be some kind of Town oversight. I don\u2019t know if Town oversight was lacking in this case, but I think it is a very important component.\u201d
\nMayor Geoff Dawe suggested the report be sent back to Town Staff to address Councillor Gaertner\u2019s concerns, but withdrew his motion to do just that in favour of an additional memo expected before this week\u2019s Council meeting.
\nCouncillor John Abel also noted concerns, primarily with the damage done during the project.
\n\u201cThe scope of this work is controversial and well-known, but what I really want to point out, in addition to a lot of the activity\u2026 is the devastation of a lot of the plant life and the big trees and how it impacts the ability to retain the water that pours into that part of Tannery Creek that goes downstream,\u201d he said.
\nIn response, Marco Ramunno, Aurora\u2019s Director of Planning, said a number of trees had to be removed because of the slopes on the site and efforts to stabilize the land. A new planting program is planned to replace some of the lost vegetation over this spring and summer, he said, but this did not go far enough in the Councillor\u2019s view.
\n\u201cThese were very big, mature trees and these little plants we\u2019re putting in will take years, decades to bring back the protection and value those trees have collectively,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a canopy and now the runoff is going to be significantly different than what [it was] normally.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long delayed and bigger-than-expected reconstruction works on Brookland Avenue last year left business owners and residents alike angry with how things went down. From Councillor Wendy Gaertner\u2019s perspective, it was nothing short of a \u201chorror story\u201d for all concerned. Now, changes are being proposed to ensure these situations don\u2019t pop up again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5mn","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 15:11:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}