Sudburians have their say on Maley Drive extension
Phase one of east-west road would cost $80 million
Despite studying a proposal to extend Maley Drive for more than two decades, Sudbury city council is still trying to decide whether it wants to build it — and Tuesday night at a public consultation, it appeared that citizens aren't sure either.
The extended Maley Drive would create an new east-west corridor across New Sudbury.
Provincial dollars have been secured to pay for part of the first phase of road construction estimated to cost about $80 million, and city staff say it looks like federal dollars will come through, too.
The city's general manager of infrastructure services, Tony Cecutti, gave a detailed presentation on what staff believe would be the benefits of the project.
Cecutti said the Maley extension would reroute some of the traffic on Lasalle and Barrydowne, thereby reducing congestion. It would save drivers about 500,000 hours in driving time, he noted. It would also give better connectivity to mining projects, and allow heavy trucks to be rerouted outside of the city core.
"We understand that many people in our community are concerned with adding a new road when so many of our existing roads require rehabilitation," he said.
"Maley Drive will actually improve the life cycle value of many of our existing roads, deferring major road rehabilitation."
Cecutti said roads like Lasalle would get their lifetime extended by an extra eight-10 years, with the reduction in trucks and other traffic. The impact of one truck on a road is equivalent to several thousand cars.
Cecutti showed residents several photos of past major infrastructure developments, noting that Maley was needed to keep Sudbury growing and competitive.
"Imagine none of those investments were made at the time. Would the mining supply and services sector be what it is today? Would development have happened like it has in Sudbury without infrastructure investments?"
Cecutti also pointed out that the city can't just choose to use provincial dollars for a different project, and that if the city decided against the development, that money would be returned to the province.
Many opposed to project
More than 50 people came to voice their opinions on the development at an open forum last night, and the majority of the dozen or so who spoke were opposed to it.
Sudburian Rachelle Niemala, who is known for her work with the Sudbury Cyclists Union, said city money could be better spent reducing traffic congestion by improving the city for pedestrians and cyclists.
"Building roads just encourages more traffic. We see that over and over again with all kinds of studies. So I'm not convinced that in building Maley you're necessarily going to take traffic off Lasalle," she said.
"I think there are a lot of people in our city who truly don't know whether [Maley] is right or not."
Several, like former council candidate Mathieu Labonte, questioned why a major route should be built around a city that is already spread out and has a stagnant population.
He said money should be spent on bringing people into Sudbury, not routing them further away.
"We need to focus on making sure that people are going to actually be able to afford to live here, and not move away, so that we have a really nice shiny road and an empty city," he said
Councillors voted to allow the public two more weeks to submit written questions and concerns about Maley Drive.