Bumpy ride

Two of Northwestern Ontario’s roads have cracked the list of Ontario’s worst roads.

Thunder Bay’s Onion Lake Road made its second appearance on CAA’s Top 20 Worst Roads of Ontario list – released Thursday – at No. 12; it first made the list in 2007 coming in as the 19th worst road.

But this year’s surprise was Sioux Lookout’s Pelican Falls Road, topping the list ahead of large urban centres like Toronto and Ottawa that usually dominate.

During the six-week campaign, CAA North and East Ontario’s manager of public and government affairs Korey Kennedy said he suggested to smaller municipalities that the best way to secure a spot on the Worst Roads list was to rally around a particular stretch of road instead of splitting the vote by nominating several municipal roadways throughout the smaller rural regions.

"In the past some of the criticism from residents of smaller municipalities was the fact there seems to be real trend towards larger urban centres like Toronto and Ottawa," Kennedy said. "What this year demonstrates is if smaller municipalities rally around a particular roadway they can not only ensure they make the list, but actually finish first."
CAA began the list in 2003 as a way to engage the general public to have their say in what roads they deem to be the worst.

"We wanted to assist municipalities in securing additional resources from the senior levels of government in order to repair the decaying infrastructure," said Kennedy, adding 90 per cent of the roads nominated to the top 20 list have been repaired or are slated to be fixed within the foreseeable future.