One concern I hear constantly from the community is, “What’s being done to fix the roads?” There’s no doubt that many of Kingston’s roads need serious attention. I experience it myself every day on my commute downtown from the west end, so I know firsthand how important it is that we invest more in our road network. City Council understands this too and that’s why, over the past few years, we’ve doubled the City’s budget for road repair and rehabilitation. Unfortunately, for many years, the City didn’t invest enough in maintaining its streets – and now we are having to play catch-up. With more than 1,800 kilometres of road within our municipal boundaries, the work ahead is significant and expensive.
But progress is happening. This summer, we’re launching an extensive resurfacing project on several major arterial roads, including:
- Brock Street (from Division Street to Palace Road)
- Johnson Street (from Victoria Street to University Avenue)
- Union Street (from Albert Street to University Avenue)
While this work will mean temporary road closures and some traffic delays, these upgrades will significantly improve key routes in and out of the downtown area, especially ahead of the return to school this fall. You might have noticed some similar work earlier this month on Johnson Street, where it was temporarily closed for repairs from Bagot Street to Wellington Street.
In addition to these projects, road repairs are also underway in other parts of the city. Our long-term goal is to repair, maintain, and where necessary, fully reconstruct our arterial, neighbourhood, rural, and downtown streets. This is a major undertaking with a large price tag, but improving Kingston’s roads is a top priority for me and all of City Council.