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Hidden Valley to River Road Extension

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Some Historical Background and the Current Situation

  • In 2007 the Region of Waterloo selected the road design,  known as Alternative 4c--- shown below in Yellow, as the preferred configuration to connect Hidden Valley Road with River Road. The same design was presented at the 17 May, 2011 public meeting. 
  • The original 2007 environmental study  field work did not find any signs of endangered species. This conclusion was challenged by some members of the Friends of Hidden Valley and the field work was repeated using different approaches in late winter, 2009. All decisions about road construction have been   on hold since 2009 because of the discovery of an endangered species - the Jefferson Salamander.
  • At the public presentation on May 17, 2011 Mr. Wayne Cheater, chair of  the Steering Committee, announced the decision to  recommend to the Region council that application should be made for an ESA  Permit  under Section 17 of the Act to allow for construction activities that would potentially contravene the ESR by impacting the species at risk. This permit, if granted, would also allow for the killing of some salamanders under certain conditions. At this time, we do not know if this permit has been granted.
  • The current preferred road alignment will destroy between 10% and 15.4% of the ESPA 27 . In addition there will be an Indirect Impact on another 10% to 15%. The Friends of Hidden Valley think this is too much destruction of the ESPA in order to allow motorist to reduce the travel time by 1.5 seconds from the Blue arrow on the map to point S on the map. Clearly road design Alternative 4c is not giving much consideration to the environment.
  • Regional Council met on 27 September and again on 5 October, 2012 to consider a motion from staff thatwould re-confirm Alternative 4c as the preferred option. After presentations by several members of the Friends of Hidden Valley, Council amended the staff motion to include a new paragraph b, which reads:
 (b) Direct staff to proceed to Phases 3 and 4 of the Class Environmental Study, including additional study of Alternative Design Concepts for the Highway 8 interchange and associated municipal road access which considers preservation of the existing woodlot;
the
 
Summary of the Arguments presented to Waterloo Region Council on 5 October, 2012
 
The Friends of Hidden Valley find the Alternative 4c road design shown in yellow on the map  unacceptable because the large curve that passes through the ESPA 27 near Hwy #8 will destroy about 15 acres of mature upland hardwood forest.
 
In addition a road design that will allow vehicles to cross over the Hwy # 8 bridge at 80 km/h will potentially cause accidents at the entry point  to the north bound Hwy #8   or at the traffic light  at the King Street corner.
 
Further, we think the proposed budget of between $58 and $65 million for this 4 km road adition is far too expensive at a time when taxes are rising faster than income. Each of the alternatives proposed by the Friends of Hidden valley will cost less. 
 
The three alternate designs that Regional Council directed the Steering Committee to study and that would correct the current Alternative 4c problems are illustrated in Red, Green or Purple on the map and would have the following features:
 
1. For all three suggestions, the exit to Hwy #8 south would be located  at point G which is about 250 metres closer to Fairway Road than the current entrance.
 
2. In the Purple alternative design, the large curve would be removed and replaced with a road that would follow the current Hidden Valley road bed to point S and then a sharp bend would be used to slow traffic to 45 km/h before crossing the bridge over Hwy # 8.
 
3. In the Red alternative design, the bridge would be located at point H on the map and would allow for  sharp traffic calming curves on both sides of the bridge before entering Cameo Drive. Another curve would be placed at point C to slow vehicle speed before reaching the intersection at King Street. This design has the added advantage of a shorter road and will not require the expensive bio-engineered road heightening  of the current Hidden Valley roadbed between points H and S.
 
4. The Green alternative is radically different. It would not require a bridge over Hwy #8. Instead the traffic would be split at the traffic circle so the city east bound traffic would be routed to Fairway Road. At Fairway the traffic would move east along an existing road, which would be about 1.2 km shorter to arrive at the River Road and Fairway corner than the current proposed route. This plan would save about $12 million. The major disadvantage of this plan is the routing of north bound traffic on Hwy #8 to the west side of the city.
 
5. All of these alternative proposals would allow for the  preservation of 15 acres of Natural Capital. The value of woods and wetlands needs to be given more visibility and included in the balance sheet when costs are presented for a new project. The details for how to assign economic value to natural areas is contained in the Pembina Institute report "Estimating the value of Natural Capital in the Credit Valley Watershed". The report is available at      www.pembina.org/economics .
 
In summary
  • The three alternative road alignments shown on the map would have a much lower environmental impact and will cost less.
  • Currently Region staff are preparing a new report that will advise Council of the advantages and disadvantages of the three alternatives proposed above. We need your support for one of the road alternatives shown  in either Red, Green or Purple.

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    In order to accomplish these changes we need your support in two ways.
     
     The first is to contact your city councillor and ask your councillor to support the road modifications we have suggested so that there is minimum impact on the uplands forest. Contact information for Kitchener councillors is available at
     
                                                                  Contact your Kitchener councillor
     
    Second Regional councillors need to be contacted because Regional Council will make the final decision about the road.  Regional councillor e-mail addresses can be found at
                                                    
                                                                  Contact your Regional Councillor.
     
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    Recent News:- At this point we do NOT know when the Steering Committee will report back to Council. 
     
                                         - For more detailed information about 2011 news click on :  Hidden Valley news for 2011
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