Red Hill Valley Parkway – New Paving Receives Complaint

In a “Letter-to-the Editor” of the Hamilton Spectator Newspaper, a local reader complained about the roughness of the newly-paved, northbound lanes of the Red Hill Valley Parkway. The letter read as follows:

Newly-paved road a disaster

RE: Red Hill

I had the displeasure of using the newly-paved downbound portion of the Red Hill Expressway. It is a disaster.

In my normal day of work, I teach bus and truck driving for a large trucking company here in Hamilton. Today I transferred one bus to London and returned with another to Hamilton. The bus is a beautiful Thomas coach. I had no trouble driving and handling it from London via 401, then 403 to the Linc in Hamilton. But once getting onto the new pavement of the Red Hill downbound, it felt as if my tires were out of balance and the steering started to shimmy, plus the ride was a bit bouncy. My conclusion is that the paving was rushed and not tested at high-speed driving. This is why the pavement is uneven. I predict that there will be some anxious moments by drivers in the next few days.

To further exacerbate the Red Hill’s downbound problem, the road marking where the road comes up to Barton Street is incorrectly painted. This intersection since its inception has had three lanes, one left turning lane, middle lane turning both left or right, and the curb lane turning right. The pavement markings were correct prior to repaving. But now there are two left turning lanes and one right turning lane despite the signage on the post advising drivers otherwise. Tsk, tsk, tsk, rushing things causes a big mess that will have to be corrected later.

I suggest that the City of Hamilton should have some big vehicle go downhill, obeying the speed limit and see what is the experience.

Dez Miklós, Hamilton

Gorski Consulting completed testing of the surface of the Red Hill Valley Parkway on May 15, 2019, or just a few days before the re-paving was commenced.

Assembly of the video project is almost complete and the numerical analysis will begin within the next day or two. We should have some results shortly. We may also return to the re-paved surface and re-do the testing to see what difference there is in the readings. We expect to up-load all this information on this website shortly.

UPDATE: June 16, 2019; 2100 Hours

In light of the comments made by the above-noted complainant Gorski Consulting expedited our re-testing of the re-paved surface by attending the Lincoln Alexander and the Red Hill Valley Parkway (RHVP) this evening. Testing was conducted in the same manner as carried out on May 15, 2019 which was done before the re-paving occurred. These two testing dates will provide a good comparison of the surfaces of the two expressways before and after the RHVP re-paving. Our impression while driving over the re-paved RHVP surface was that it appeared to be smooth and not consistent with the observations of the complainant noted above. However that complainant was reportedly driving a bus and there could be a difference in experience compared to the Buick Allure passenger car that was used in our testing. Once we have analysed the data we will have more to say on this issue.