A northward extension of Barrydowne Road to Hanmer, estimated to cost more than $100-million, is set to be aggressively promoted by Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan as a campaign issue.
“People who are going to represent the Valley have got to be in support of the Barrydowne extension because the Barrydowne extension leads to growth,” he said, adding that it’s a chicken versus the egg situation.
“Do we have growth to the point where we need the Barrydowne extension or do we create the Barrydowne extension so we can have the growth?”
Between the options of extending Barrydowne Road and widening Municipal Road 80, he said, going through open country just makes more sense because it opens up land for development.
Neighbouring city councillor René Lapierre of Ward 6 isn’t of the same opinion, and supports the city’s current direction to widen Municipal Road 80 to six lanes before they consider a Barrydowne Road extension.
Municipal Road 80 is west of the proposed Barrydowne Road extension. It begins at the Notre Dame Avenue intersection with Lasalle Boulevard in Sudbury and extends north to Val Therese.
“Our assessment growth isn’t where we’d like it to be, so I think once we get to where we need to be with assessment growth we need to do a deep dive into whether we should build another road to access town,” he said in supporting the Barrydowne Road extension’s placement as a proposed long-term municipal project.
Since there’s still capacity on Municipal Road 80, he doesn’t believe now’s the time to look at extending Barrydowne Road northward.
A 2010 city estimate had the Barrydowne Road extension’s cost at approximately $102 million, city traffic and asset management supervisor Joe Rocca said, adding that this cost estimate is long since outdated and would have increased since that time.
Plus, he said that much will have changed between the 2018 Transportation Master Plan and an update of the plan anticipated in either 2024 or 2025.
“When you think of when the Transportation Master Plan came out and how council has shifted its priorities in terms of climate change, investments in GOVA, it would be prudent to take the time to look at these projects again,” he said.
City council unanimously declared a climate emergency in 2019 and adopted the resulting Community Energy and Emissions Plan, which has set a commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
“We’re looking at getting people out of single-occupancy vehicles,” Rocca said, adding that people are being encouraged to take advantage of GOVA Transit and carpooling.
The city’s climate goals make up one of the reasons behind Lapierre’s support for widening Municipal Road 80 before the city looks at extending Barrydowne Road.
“We have to try to reduce our carbon footprint, and adding four lanes of new asphalt road to an area that didn’t have anything before versus two more (lanes) to an existing road would reduce our carbon footprint,” he said.
He’d prefer to see the city look at alternatives, such as improving Municipal Road 80 and the west-east Radar Road to the north, “before destroying land and forest” for a new road.
The expense is another concern, he said, describing it as “astronomical,” especially when amortized over the course of its lifespan. Given residents’ concerns about how much taxes they’re paying, he said the Barrydowne Road extension project would be a hard sell.
In addition to freeing up land for development, Kirwan said extending Barrydowne Road would make the Valley more appealing for residential development by reducing travel time to the city.
“Sudbury’s got the table set for a lot of growth in the next five years, and I think a lot of the developers are waiting to see what kind of housing they should be building,” he said, adding that townhouses, rentals and senior-friendly developments will likely be in high demand.
Although supportive of the Barrydowne Road extension, Kirwan said it’s likely to be some time before taxpayers would support the more than $100-million project.
It’s similar to the four-laning of Municipal Road 35 between Sudbury and Chelmsford, Lapierre said, which the Azilda to Chelmsford stretch is slated to be completed with a third layer of asphalt this year.
The Municipal Road 35 project was decades in the planning stage before it came to fruition, he said, and the Barrydowne Road extension would likely face a similar timeline.
Pending city council direction, Rocca said the proposal is tentatively beyond the 2031 range and is not currently recommended.
“Right now, MR 80 still has sufficient capacity,” he said. “It’s one of the roads we’re going to be looking at a little closer in the coming years as the pandemic starts to settle out and people start to return to what their new travel patterns will be.”
The Municipal Road 80 and Barrydowne Road extension discussion was sparked last month when city council voted to remove the proposed six-laning of Notre Dame Avenue from Kathleen Street to Lasalle Boulevard from the Official Plan.
Public consultation for proposed amendments of the Official Plan, which maps out short and long-term plans and goals for various areas of the municipality, is expected to begin soon.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
