Red Hill construction mistake costing millions
September 27, 2006

Construction crews on the Red Hill expressway project have been tearing it up after it was recently determined that much of the gravel used to build the roadbed is too soft and is subject to disintegration. It is estimated that over $3 million in new gravel has had to be purchased for the project.

Ironically, the faulty gravel was supposed to be a major cost-saver for the controversial project. It was produced on site from shales excavated from the escarpment face near Mount Albion Road.

Until the mid-1990s expressway plans didn't include a new hole in the escarpment. Instead, the road was scheduled to pass over the lip of the escarpment and descend to the valley floor on fill and a bridge. The 2-1 decision of the Consolidated Board Hearing in 1985 said the expressway would be built “without creating an additional opening through the escarpment”.

Then plans changed to include an 80-metre wide new cut in the face of the escarpment. The city explained that this change would reduce earth fill requirements and reduce the expressway grade. City officials also trumpeted the decision to blast a hole in the escarpment as a major cost-saving measure that would provide 80 percent of the aggregate needed for the project.

Blasting began in 2004, despite a protest by a group of youth who occupied trees near the area being dynamited. Later that year, a blasting mishap sent large rocks into a nearby residential neighbourhood. Consbec Inc was eventually charged over the incident by the Ministry of the Environment. The material removed from the escarpment face was subsequently crushed to gravel size in a major operation conducted at the top of the valley. And then it was spread along the roadway.

In August, however, excavators and other heavy equipment was sent in to remove the gravel, and a steady line of large trucks brought new gravel from Cayuga and possibly other locations. City officials have said nothing about the problem and it is not clear who will foot the bills – for the gravel, the removal, replacement and the transportation to carry this out.