PUSLINCH – Residents and drivers in the Puslinch area can expect to see gravel hauling trucks earlier, later and on a different route than usual during September’s Brock Road roundabout construction.
Wednesday’s Puslinch council saw the approval of expanding Dufferin Aggregates’ hauling hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday, an extra hour in both directions than the usual agreement, and a temporary route change.
This is a response to the roundabout construction happening at Brock Road and Wellington Road 34. The county website says this work will take place from Sept. 8 to 27.
Dufferin Aggregates has a longstanding agreement with the town on a haul route going between their operations on Victoria Road to Brock Road which uses this intersection.
Kevin Mitchell, planning and approvals director for Dufferin Aggregates, explained in a delegation to council that they had been scrambling to figure out a new route as they were given short notice of this closure.
“We don’t have material on site, there’s no other way to feed the plant and we were looking at potentially five weeks of being shut down,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said the county’s solution will allow trucks to go through the construction zone when full but empty trucks will go down to Morriston and turn left at the lights to loop them towards Victoria Road.
However, the trucks may not always be able to go through the construction zone and Mitchell anticipated that they will need to close some days. To make up for this, he asked council for extended hauling hours Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. until the end of the season and to allow them on Saturdays 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Council had concerns about the impact extending the hours too greatly would have on residents.
Councillor John Sepulis had concerns about noise at night, calling it intrusive during quite hours, but councillor Sara Bailey was concerned about the morning.
“We got school starting shortly, which means a lot more bus traffic and a lot of the busing turns left off of Brock Road to get to Aberfoyle School,” Bailey said to council. “So I’m just concerned if there is more truck traffic between 7 and 8:30 that it could cause congestion and safety issues.”
Mitchell said operators in the past have shipped at 7 a.m. and assured Bailey that it is safe.
This was too big an ask for mayor James Seeley. He compromised and suggested allowing 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., approving their temporary route and asking for a report back on how this works for them.
Mitchell and council were agreeable to this solution and unanimously approved the motion.
