Increasing calls for city to make public all reports about Red Hill Valley Parkway

A Hamilton councillor says the city should make public all its safety testing on the Red Hill Valley Parkway.

And an expert in municipal infrastructure says it is "surprising and maybe shocking" the city didn't do follow-up testing after a 2013 report indicated issues with the traction the road was providing drivers.

Coun. Sam Merulla of Ward 4 (east end) says he'll ask for a complete chronology of all the testing on the road when council meets Wednesday. He'll also move any reports done be made available to the public.

City council has asked for several tests over the years, Merulla said, and the public should see all of them.

It's surprising, and maybe shocking, that the City of Hamilton could sit on information like this.- Ahmed Shalaby, asphalt expert and municipal infrastructure chair at University of Manitoba

"We've generated nearly 10 reports, all of which were politically driven," he said. "I want to put everything in perspective from beginning to end."

Meanwhile, Coun. Brad Clark of Ward 9 (upper Stoney Creek) will ask for a judicial investigation. The city's auditor is already looking into why the report stayed buried so long, but Clark said it's a public perception issue now.

"I know the director very well," Clark said. "He's a good man. He knows his stuff." But he's also a city employee, Clark said, and people need to know there isn't a conflict of interest.

Clark will also ask for a protocol where a councillor can sign out any report that deals with "human health and safety."

In the past, he said, "I've asked for reports and not gotten them."

The moves come after a bombshell announcement last week that a 2013 friction test was buried. 

That report by Tradewind Scientific found friction levels along Red Hill were below expected standards — and in some places, well below. 

The report recommended more friction testing. City council also saw CIMA+'s late-2018 follow-up analysis of that report, which deemed the highway safe.

As controversy over the highway's safety continued Tuesday, Ontario's Transportation Minister Jeff Yurek said Tuesday that he'll order 2007 provincial friction test results for the Red Hill to be released too. 

In an email to CBC News, spokesperson Andrew Buttigieg said the minister has asked MTO staff to review all involvement with pavement testing on the parkway.

He specifically noted the expressway is a municipal road and that the MTO had no role in the city's 2013 study.

Should have been more investigation

"MTO conducted friction testing on the pavement surface starting in 2007 only to evaluate the performance of the stone material used by the Red Hill Parkway project's aggregate supplier for use in future provincial projects," Buttigieg explained.

"Minister Yurek will be ordering the release of these test results and asking MTO officials to offer technical assistance to the City of Hamilton."

Ahmed Shalaby, an asphalt expert and municipal infrastructure chair at the University of Manitoba, said friction testing is unusual, so it's good the city did it. 

But once it had that info, he said, it should have done follow-up testing, as was recommended. One-time data varies according to conditions, he said. 

"You should not overemphasize that type of testing," he said. "It only tells you to do more investigation. The response should have been exactly that."

'It's surprising, and maybe shocking'

"It's surprising, and maybe shocking, that the City of Hamilton could sit on information like this." 

Any subsequent testing, he said, "seems disconnected" from the 2013 study. 

The city should still replicate the friction testing before it proceeds with a plan to lay new asphalt, he said. There are new high friction surface treatment methods that "could be done in a day." 

There were 862 crashes on the Red Hill Valley Parkway — including four that were fatal — between 2013 and 2017, according to the city's 2017 Collision Report.

A lawyer who has represented families that lost loved ones along the parkway are weighing their legal options and considering a class action lawsuit.