Westmount Ave. to be paved in gold
By Rowan Lomas

Astonished municipal representatives lashed out at town staff during a Sept. 19 Innisfil council meeting after learning road construction on Westmount Ave. will cost almost twice as much as estimated.

Innisfil's planning and development department has requested an additional $381,400 for the project, bringing the total budget to over $1 million. In addition to the cost overruns, Deputy Mayor Gord Wauchope was dismayed to learn construction crews won't begin work until the spring, breaking council's promise to urbanize the street with new sidewalks, curbs, storm drains and sanitary sewers by this fall.

"I'm appalled at this…I can't believe that a bill could cost over 50 per cent more than the estimates," said Ward 6 councillor Rod Boynton."Is that an engineering mistake?"

Planning and development Director Robert McAuley responded that there were unexpected design costs, as well as other incremental costs over the last year. Town staff also believed the street to be in better condition, but discovered the asphalt is crumbling and requires more work than anticipated.

Surveys and soil investigations conducted earlier this year revealed "an extremely high natural water table in the proposed construction area," according to McAuley's report to council, forcing crews to elevate the road. Having inadequate sewers throughout the municipality to accommodate drainage from Westmount Ave. also requires the removal, replacement and upsizing of existing storm pipes, noted the report.

Engineers knew the storm drainage problems in Innisfil and should have done their homework when calculating a construction estimate, said Belle Ewart Councillor Bill Van Berkel. He recommended staff, in the future, ask for a little extra money up front to conduct proper studies and avoid poor estimates that could take council by surprise.

McAuley responded by requesting that a drainage assessment be done in that section of the municipality. Staff encountered a severe lack of outlets when converting ditches to storm drains in Innisfil's growth area, he said.

"When you look at a piece of road this big costing over a million dollars you see why there's such a backlog," Cookstown councillor Lynn Dollin told the approximately 15 residents on hand. "Because a piece of road costing this much would make you think it should be paved in gold."

Despite the jump in price and extended wait, town council plans to go ahead with the project.

"I think this particular case is a little bit out of our control, unfortunately," said Mayor Brian Jackson. "Council has not backed away from this and intends to move forward."