The truck route to be used for the hauling of aggregate involves travel on Ramara Concession Road 2 and Highway 12, which has become inundated with more and more traffic. This includes already excessive aggregate truck traffic, which is well known to bring a heightened level of risk to travel on Highway 12. Ramara Township residents are very aware of the added risk from the huge increase in truck traffic on Highway 12. A great number of the residents of Ramara Township have experienced near misses involving truck traffic.
Concession Roads including Concession 2 and alternate routes involving other Ramara Township roads, to be used during periods requiring redirection of traffic, require extensive design upgrading and paving so they will be able to carry equivalent high volumes of traffic, including heavy truck traffic.
The existing 6.7 km stretch of Simcoe County Road 47 comprising the route between Highway 12 and the Mara/Carden Boundary Road has previously experienced 16 accidents in a 12-month period, as per OPP data. This involved 7 aggregate hauling trucks running off the road, (the unloaded trucks typically stay upright and the loaded trucks would roll over dumping their loads). One of these aggregate truck accidents involved a truck narrowly missing a home.
In response to the severe number of accidents involving Simcoe County Road 47, including aggregate truck accidents, a deputation was presented at Simcoe County Council on February 25, 2016. The deputation resulted in Simcoe County Council passing a resolution to have the speed limit on this 6.7 km portion of Simcoe County Road 47 dropped from 80 kms/hr to 60 kms/hr, and initiated improvements to the road structure including repainting road markings, repairing and widening the road shoulders and eventually resurfacing. These measures have reduced the number of accidents, however has not eliminated accidents on this 6.7 km portion of Simcoe County Road 47. The current condition in 2024 of this 6.7 km portion of Simcoe County Road 47 shows significant deterioration, soon needing additional repairs and improvements.
A representative for the McCarthy Quarry that uses the 6.7 km Simcoe County Road 47 haul route has commented, “GIP is not aware of the 16 accidents in a 12-month period that you refer to.” People associated with GIP must have a short memory and/or don’t live in the Brechin area of Ramara Township.
Residents and tax payers in Ramara Township who are not benefiting from this latest proposal to haul materials/aggregate to and from Ramara Township should not be expected to accept the destructive undermining of their lives and lively hoods simply because they live in Ramara Township, in lieu of those benefiting from the proposed site plan approval.
Aggregate mining and haulage permanently changes the existing natural environment and causes numerous negative impacts to our community. It is certainly not a benign activity.
Please see the attached link to Power Point information of quarry truck involvement in accidents on the 6.7 km portion of Simcoe County Road 47.