The vastly-improved Cardwell Street, the important artery that connects Manitowaning with its neighbouring community of Wikwemikong, is a pleasure to drive on. The minor glitch of a utility pole that has yet to be replaced by Hydro One, and which motorists, for now, have to circumnavigate is merely an amusing feature on an otherwise nearly flawless new road.
‘Almost’ because, in spite of the best efforts of Assiginack council, the shoulders of Cardwell Street are comprised of unpaved gravel, a noticeable contrast after travelling the fairly-recently resurfaced portion of Highway 6 between South Baymouth and 10 Mile Point that sports the hard-won, metre-wide paved shoulders on either side of the highway.
In the case of Cardwell Street, the dollars to completely rebuild a fairly lengthy municipal road were equally hard won and there were just enough of them to do the job.
However the newly reconstructed Cardwell Street also presents an object lesson because of the absence of the paved shoulders that line its nearest parallel thoroughfare, Highway 6.
That lesson is a simple one: paved shoulders would have been a first-rate extra and the stretch of new roadway would then have provided an excellent year-round exercise venue for walkers and runners looking for a challenging but manageable distance (Manitowaning to the curling club and golf course corner or Manitowaning to the Wikwemikong line and, of course, return).
The same thing for cyclists, the issue that was in play when the reconstruction of that portion of Highway 6 was ultimately funded to include paved shoulders by a provincial ministry of highways which, after saying ‘no’ for two years, ultimately said ‘yes’ and agreed that Manitoulin would be a pilot project.
In the case of Cardwell Street, as a municipal road, there wasn’t the same degree of clout available to the same municipality that had been in the forefront of the paved shoulders campaign for Highway 6.
Norm Miller, the Progressive Conservative MPP for Parry Sound-Muskoka, had proposed a private member’s bill in the Ontario legislature based on the MTO’s turnaround agreement to provide paved shoulders for Highway 6 which argued that, when provincial highways were being rebuilt and resurfaced and where it was appropriate, paved shoulders should be automatically a part of the process.
While Mr. Miller’s bill is still outstanding, it is a good idea and, had it been in place as law, would have given Assiginack council a little more clout in arguing for paved shoulders for Cardwell Street as it acts in every respect as a provincial highway, as the sole link between two important communities.
Cardwell Street is (nearly) completed, without paved shoulders and there is not too much likelihood that these will be added after the fact, at least not in the near future.
But this isn’t to say that municipalities should not continue to seek resources to build or improve significant road linkages that do include this feature, for the benefit of walkers/runners, cyclists as well as for the longevity of the road itself as roads built with paved shoulders tend not to “fray at the edges” nearly as much as those with gravel shoulders.
Similarly, Mr. Miller’s private member’s bill, applying as it does to provincial highways, remains a good idea and the fact that it passed second reading in the legislature last December is encouraging for the eventual reintroduction and hopeful passage of the bill.
