The city's been repairing a Scarborough road for 2 years. No, you can't drive on it

The city's road repair crews have some good news and some bad news for residents of one Scarborough neighbourhood.

The good news: Repairs to Military Trail, a major local artery that's been closed for repairs for more than two years, should begin again sometime this fall.

The bad news: The road will likely remain closed until the spring of 2024, meaning residents are still facing months of gridlock and travel delays.

Mobushar Pannu, director of roadway design and construction for the city, says he's aiming to have the problems solved and the road re-opened this year, but says next spring may be more realistic. 

"Although it's a small section of roadway and it appears easy (to re-build),  we have a lot of curves and elevations, which makes it complicated," said Pannu. "When we did our surveys it became evident that the work had some serious deficiencies that had to be corrected."

The issue will be up for discussion at city hall at a meeting of the infrastructure and environment committee on Wednesday, when staff will try to answer questions about the delays from Coun. Paul Ainslie (Ward 24 Scarborough-Guildwood). 

"Residents have had to rely on alternative routes through local roads, which has caused congestion and additional travel time," Ainslie wrote in a letter to staff last spring. "The community deserves transparency and a clear plan for the timely completion of this important infrastructure project."

In a written response to be presented at Wednesday's committee meeting, city manager Paul Johnson appears to put the blame for the delays on the contractor hired by the city to do the work, Sanscon Construction Ltd.

Problems began in fall of 2021

"Throughout the course of this project, there were multiple instances of the contractor either not producing an adequate construction schedule or not meeting the agreed upon construction schedule," Johnson writes. "In addition to the above-noted delays, work was also paused for periods of time due to what was suspected, and has since been proven, to be deficiencies in the work."

Sanscon has no written response included in the agenda for Wednesday's meeting, and has not yet responded to calls and emails from CBC Toronto.

The problems in the area around Neilson Road and Ellesmere Road began in September 2021, when the city shut down a busy one-kilometre stretch of Military Trail between Ellesmere and Highcastle roads to all traffic. Work began the following February when contractor Sanscon started re-building the road, which included new curbs, adding a sidewalk and re-building the bridge over Highland Creek.

Johnson's letter maintains that when city inspectors visited the site in the summer of 2022, they found that contractor Sanscon had misjudged the grade of the curves and also installed the wrong size curbs. 

But Pannu says it's not as straightforward a job as one might expect. 

He points out that the stretch of road runs through a ravine and is particularly hilly and winding. It also crosses a major Enbridge gas line, and the bridge that crosses Highland Creek will also have to be replaced.

Pannu said when city inspectors visited the site in late summer, 2022, they found multiple problems with the work that had been completed to date — problems that meant the city's originally announced re-opening date of summer 2022 would have to be put off until summer 2023.

According to Johnson's letter, Sanscon challenged some of the city's findings about the road's improper curve grading, the angle a road is built on to ensure it's safe for drivers.

New surveys needed

According to Johnson's letter, new surveys were required, which Pannu says are still being discussed by the two sides.

City staff and the construction company are now in the process of trying to negotiate a fix to the problems that won't require ripping up the road bed that's already been laid and starting from scratch, Pannu said.

All of that is cold comfort to Zakir Patel, the Toronto District School Board trustee for Ward 19 Scarborough-Guildwood

.

"Parents are unhappy,  the community is unhappy, everyone is unhappy," Patel said.

He says the closure, and resulting traffic james, are especially hard on dozens of students who are bussed to schools in his ward from neighbourhoods around the shuttered section of Military Trail.

Extra 20 minutes in traffic

"Even the parents who bring their kids in cars, it's an extra 10, 15, 20 minutes," he said. "Parents are really frustrated."

And he says it's not just students and their parents who are affected. Everyone living in the area has put up with more than two years of traffic headaches, a situation he says needs to be resolved.

"Somebody has to step up...This is not acceptable," he said. "It's very easy to blame somebody. City staff has to take this responsibility."

Pannu said he and his staff appreciate the community's concerns.

"We recognize it is causing a lot of concern to our residents and the travelling public, and we again apologize to all of our road users," he said. "Our priority is to open the roadway, but ensure it's safe when it's open.

"That's the challenge."