Sources close to the situation feel that the source of the sinkhole is located at 50 Colborne Street South, Simcoe, Ontario.
It's not exactly a hole in the road. It's a hole in Norfolk County called the Roads Department.
Recent financial information obtained show's that Norfolk's Roads cost is the 3rd highest in South Western Ontario. With 2012 costs coming in at just over $24 million dollars. Double the costs of Guelph, Waterloo or Brant County.
Road Costs
London $55,357,430
Windsor $33,293,950
Oxford County $16,924,982
Brantford $13,331,263
Brant County $12,575,464
Guelph $12,183,393
Waterloo $12,081,910
Bruce County $8,204,271
St Thomas $4,892,090
We can only wonder if the yellow lines in Norfolk are actually made with real gold at this cost.
After careful analysis of the problem it's really quite easy to see. Our department really has no clue as to how much a Culvert or Bridge replacement costs. We'll analyze 2 recent culvert rebuilds and one bridge.
First the Culverts :
| Tulpin Culvert Replacement | Wilbur Smith Culvert Replacement | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget | $440,000 | Budget | $440,000 |
| Engineering | $50,000 | Engineering | $50,000 |
| Construction | $390,000 | Construction | $390,000 |
| Actual | Actual | ||
| Low Tender | $407,268.90 | Low Tender | $521,805 |
| Engineering | $40,000 | Engineering | $40,000 |
| Geo-technical | $7,600 | Geo-technical | $10,000 |
| Hydro Relocate | $7,800 | Hydro Relocate | $65,000 |
| Contingency | $0 | Contingency | $20,000 |
| HST | $8,142.97 | HST | $11,559.77 |
| Total Cost | $470,811.87 | Total Cost | $668,364.77 |
| Under estimated | $30,000 | Under estimated | $230,000 |
And now the Bridge :
| Cedar Street Bridge | ||
|---|---|---|
| Budget | $1,850,000 | |
| Actual | $1,949,026 | |
| Low Tender | $1,669,700.03 | |
| Engineering | $105,200 | |
| Geo-Technical | $24,700 | |
| Traffic Mgmt Plan | $24,200 | |
| Utility Relocation | $42,500 | |
| Contingency | $49,000 | |
| HST | $33,726.88 | |
| Total | $1,949,026 | |
| Under estimated | $100,000 | |
3 Projects underestimated by $360,000 total. You're not even a good guesser at that point.
In 2009 2 culverts were tendered and both came in under budget. Structure 030043 was budgeted for $300,000 and the actual cost was $226,466.50 Structure 010043 was budgeted for $400,000 and the actual cost was $249,393.85
$25,000 was for engineering cost. Are all engineering fees rounded to the nearest 1000 for some reason?
Engineering costs have soared to almost double in 4 years.
There are 137 full time people employed at Public Works.
Financial Information Return (FIR) and Municipal Performance Measurement Program (MPMP)
The above chart states Norfolk County has 4184 Lane kilometer's. So that's $5,828.29 per Lane kilometer. It costs each resident of Norfolk County, $387.07 per year for our roads.
Our winter clearing service was one of the only County's in Ontario that did not meet the municipal service level with 100%. Ours was at a low of 74.2%. Buy your winter tires early this year. You will need them.
There are 138 bridges in the County and another 104 Culverts. Only 68.6% of them are rated in good to very good condition. That leaves 76 of them to be repaired. With our department under guessing by an average of $120,000 a structure it's only $9,120,000 that they can be wrong by!
Lucky for us Council is opening up trails for horses. We simply can't afford to keep our 'golden roads'.
Our Manager of Public Works Eric D'Hondt is paid over $140,000 per year.
When he's not busy trying to gift roads to his wife, Bill Cridland, Manager of Roads is taking home over $105,000. Maybe he can give them all to his wife so she can manage the finances of the department better!
At what point does Council hold them accountable for their performance or non-performance?
Public Works Business Plan 2013
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