THUNDER BAY – A concerned citizen of Fowler Township and One Island Lake, Eric Zakrewski, is raising safety concerns relating to two proposed aggregate pit developments, specifically, the use of the only road available to residents.
“They’ve been on the books with the Ministry of Natural Resources for about two years and over the last two years, about 200 local concerned citizens have really come together around formal issues and concerns and complaints around these massive large scale aggregate projects that are proposed and the way the province has been handling them,” said Zakrewski.
“One of the key issues that people have been concerned about is public safety on the only road to approximately 400 or 500 cottages and permanent residences up there that both companies are proposing to haul gravel on.”
Dante Di Gregorio, Estimator/Project Manager, Bruno’s Contracting, says that the road has been used for hauling aggregate historically and continues to be used in such a way.
“The permit location is on Crown land, it accesses via Gilbride Road which is a 4.7 km section of road which extends beyond the termination of highway 591 and past the permit entrance. So, the land surrounding the Crown land at issue is designated general land-use area,” said Di Gregorio.
“So, within that, permissible use includes aggregate extraction and other resource-based extraction, so I think it’s anticipated and intended that this is the corridor to be used for resource-based extraction in the area and it’s currently being used for that purpose and has historically as well.”
Zakrewski says that both companies are looking for permits that will allow them to haul up to 40,000 dump trucks per year of aggregate.
Di Gregorio says that their latest correspondence with Zakrewski has indicated a max upset of 8,800 aggregate loads per annum with recent correspondence from the other proponent, Milne Aggregates, indicating a projected 1,700.
“Forty thousand loads being removed from these sources is totally unrealistic. That represents a massive volume, at that point, you’re dealing with market constraints that are just not there. In terms of the figure of 40,000, I’m not sure where Mr. Zakrewski’s getting that figure from,” said Di Gregorio.
“Because he’s been party to the consultation and we’ve discussed this as part of that process, and I know it was a point that people wanted to discuss early on.”
Due to the level of concern brought forward by concerned citizens, Zakrewski commissioned an independent engineering study on the safety of the roadway that the companies are planning to use.
“We found someone with almost 30 years of experience in traffic safety engineering, and the staggering conclusions are that the road is actually not safe as it is. And there’s an extreme risk to children using that road, pedestrians, school buses, fire trucks, E.M.S. Emergency service workers that are servicing hundreds of residents that have driveways on that road” said Zakrewski.
“So we’re astounded that the MNR can be continuing to consider this proposed transportation route.”
Di Gregorio says that drawing the conclusion that the road is unsafe is unfair as Gilbride road is not a local functional classification road according to the MTO and the study consultant should not have used this classification for the study.
“I think the position being put out that the report necessarily concludes that the road is unsafe is actually misleading because I don’t believe it draws that conclusion,” said Di Gregorio
“I think it assigns a functional classification to the roadway and then purports to assess the existing road as against the geometric standards that exist for that functional classification taking the position that where there is an exception to geometric design, it might contribute to a less safe roadway.”
Zakrewski was quick to point out that not everyone was against the gravel pits proceeding but says that they need to proceed in a responsible and safe manner.
