Culvert project finally wraps - $26 million later

Roger Varley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, with Lisha Van Nieuwenhove

At a news conference in council chambers last Thursday, chaired by Mayor Dave Barton and Chief Administrative Officer Kristi Honey, the Township of Uxbridge announced that the "complete cost" of the Brock Street culvert project, "including litigation and settlements," has come in at just over $26 million.

The actual total was $26,073,557, the Township said. In July 2018, the estimate was $17.6 million. By May 2022, costs totalled $24.2 million.

However, there are still four civil suits that have yet to be settled. These include a suit involving Song Ning, who was the franchise owner of the Coffee Time store which was forced to close when culvert work damaged the floor of the shop.

Barton said the original estimate for the culvert construction in 2010 was $10 million, an estimate that was provided by AECOM through an environmental assessment. He added that the project has been on the books for 30 years.

"It was the most complicated project ever for Uxbridge," he said.

Despite the fact the Township promised "full financial disclosure," there were some areas where confidentiality came into play.

Lawyer Christopher Lee, working on behalf of the Township, said confidentiality was a major point of contention in getting one particular lawsuit settled.

"There are some things the law says you can't talk about," he said.

In a press release issued by the Township, it was stated that an $8.75 million claim against the Township by AECOM and Brennan Paving was settled for $460,000. The Township says it had filed a similar claim against the two companies. When asked how an almost $9 million suit was settled for only five per cent of the original claim, Barton said, "in order to make this happen, we had to agree to some confidentiality." Lee said he could not comment on the settlement because of confidentiality.

Chief Administrative Officer Kristi Honey said lawyers were brought to the table early in the project to document risks involved in the project and limit liabilities.

"We took a thorough project management approach," she said.

Local resident Cathy Christoff said she was concerned that the Region of Durham paid only 25 per cent of the construction costs to cover that part of the culvert which ran under Brock Street, which is a regional road. Barton said he had no idea why the region didn't take on the project. In an email response to a follow-up question regarding regional involvement, Honey offered the following: “On numerous occasions, Township leadership met with the Region to secure Regional support and management of this complex project. In July 2018, it was further escalated through (then) Mayor (Pat) Malloy, Councillor (Dave) Barton, and Township senior staff to Regional Chair (Gerri Lynn) O'Connor where it was officially declined. Ultimately, the project needed to commence to protect public safety, with further urgency as our insurer advised any infrastructure failure would be uninsurable.”

BACK WHEN IT ALL BEGAN - In this photo from November 2018, a work crew begins excavating a small portion of sidewalk on Brock Street, gathering information that will be needed for upcoming culvert construction. Last Thursday, the Township finally announced the final costs for the project. Construction finished in 2021. Cosmos file photo

Barton and Honey were asked why there was no advance planning for businesses that might be affected by the construction. Honey replied that while "my heart bleeds for (Song Ning), we have to follow specific rules."

According to the “Downtown Uxbridge Flood Reduction” report from November 2012, discussion about downtown Uxbridge needing a new culvert began in 1983 when a report by the South Lake Simcoe Conservation Authority (now the Lake Simcoe Regional Conservation Authority) recommended a new culvert be built to mitigate flood concerns. No action was taken by council at that time. The report also said that, between 1932 and 1965, there were six serious floods in the downtown area. Former Uxbridge mayor Gerri Lynn O’Connor recalls that, in 2008, two large regional storms occurred, one of which was in Newmarket, which experienced extensive flooding.

“That’s when we reacted and realized we needed to do something,” she said.

That same year, the LSRCA recommended removing the old culvert and reopening the Uxbridge Brook to run through the downtown in order to be ready for a regional storm. Two years later, the Township and the region conducted an assessment of the flood risk and finally decided a twin channel culvert was needed to eliminate a flood "bottleneck" caused by the existing culvert.

Eventually, construction began in September 2018 and, after encountering several delays, was completed in the summer of 2021. With the project's completion, most of the downtown area was removed from the floodplain, meaning there can be future development in the area. Before the new culvert went in, estimates were made that a serious regional storm could possibly see downtown Brock Street under 10 feet of water.