Township of Blandford-Blenheim Council learned all about the municipality’s road improvement criteria during its Council meeting on Wednesday, April 2, 2025.
Back in January, councillors directed Township staff to prepare a report in regards to the decision making that goes into converting a gravel road to a hard service road.
The direction came after two residents sent correspondence to Council concerning the feasibility of improving Township Road 12, specifically between County Road 22 and Oxford Road 5.
Jim Borton, the Township’s Director of Public Works, started his presentation by explaining that Blandford-Blenheim currently has 130 kilometres of hard surface roads and 200 kilometres of gravel roads.
“In our annual budget, we spend approximately $315,000 for new gravel, and $260,000 for dust control every year,” he said. “As well, in our ten year capital, we’re converting approximately three kilometres [of gravel roads] a year at a $250,000 cost.”
Borton went on to explain that as far as how they determine what roads should be converted to a hard surface, they use a point system with the following six key factors:
1. Traffic Data/Average Annual Daily Traffic – Collected every five years
2. Connectivity – If the road connects to a settlement area, rural cluster or industrial
3. Households – The number of households on the road
4. Readiness – How much work needs to be done before it can be converted
5. Proximity to Parallel Paved Roads
6. Equipment Routing Efficiency – Winter maintenance routes
He then went over a list of the nine Township gravel roads that are currently on the list to be converted to hard surface, and what year they are expected to be converted by.
In 2026 – Blandford Road, from Oxford Road 8 to Township Road 12
In 2027 – Township Road 3 from Blandford Road to County Road 22
In 2028 – Township Road 11, from Blenheim Road to Trussler Road
In 2029 – Township Road 12, from Blenheim Road to Trussler Road
In 2030 – Township Road 4, from Gobles Road to the Township Road 3
In 2031 – Township Road 3, from County Road 22 to Gobles Road
In 2032 – Township Road 4, from County Road 22 to Gobles Road
In 2033 – Township Road 5, from Gobles Road to the Oxford Road 3
In 2034 – Township Road 5, from Blandford Road to County Road 22
As far as improving Township Road 12, from County Road 22 to Blandford Road, and then from Blandford Road through to Oxford Road 5 (the stretches of road that prompted the report), Borton said that when you take into consideration the above six key factors, the roads do rank lower on the list.
“Those two roads do rank fairly low,” he said. “Their traffic count right now is lower, though the correspondence that we received said they have some new businesses there and they’re expecting higher, so that may change when we do our counts this year. It will bring them up a little bit [on the list], but I don’t see that bringing them up as a whole a lot.”
Councillor Tina Young then asked Borton whether large farming equipment causes more wear and requires more maintenance on hard surface roads compared to gravel roads, and he confirmed that was correct.
“A hard surface treated road is meant to be a low volume road, [for vehicles like] cars or small trucks. As soon as you get into the heavier equipment and your large traffic, they do more damage on a surface treatment road,” responded Borton. “If we want to start looking into a higher volume road for farm equipment, you’d be looking at a better base, usually asphalt. You almost want to go to a more of a commercial industrial standard, where the cost is obviously that much more. By keeping it a gravel road, yes, we may have to do a little bit more grading and a little bit more maintenance on it, but that is easily done compared to everything else.”
He then clarified that if they were to decide to do asphalt, it could cost approximately $400,000 rather than $250,000.
The report was then received as information and Council decided not to make any changes to the road improvement criteria at this time.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
