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HomeMy WebLinkAboutINS-15-074 - Maintenance on Trails Leading to Schools Staff Rport I r rc'.�► t .R Infrastructure Services Department wmkitchener.ca REPORT TO: Community and Infrastructure Services Committee DATE OF MEETING: September 21, 2015 SUBMITTED BY: Greg Hummel, Acting-Director Operations, 519-741-2600, ext. 4598 PREPARED BY: Greg Hummel, Acting-Director Operations, 519-741-2600, ext. 4598 WARD(S) INVOLVED: All Wards DATE OF REPORT: September 3, 2015 REPORT NO.: INS-15-074 SUBJECT: Maintenance on Trails Leading to Schools RECOMMENDATION: That Council support the pilot project to asphalt and winter maintain trails around Glencairn Public School and that staff monitor the use of these trails through two winter seasons and; That Staff continue to meet with neighbourhood associations on school access routes and further; That Staff report back to Council on the finding of the pilot project and future direction. BACKGROUND: Through the 2015 budget process, Council requested that staff be directed to report back, following community engagement and discussion with local area school boards with a priority list of trails and walkways that are crucial routes to schools; and also that staff be directed to outline the financial impact of winter maintenance for those identified trails and walkways. REPORT: Following Councils direction, staff met with the Waterloo Region District School Board, Waterloo District Catholic School Board, School Board Transportation staff, City of Kitchener Crossing Guard Manager and Trails staff to review the priority needs for school access and transportation priorities. ***This information is available in accessible formats upon request. *** Please call 519-741-2345 or TTY 1-866-969-9994 for assistance. 6 - 1 The group identified trail routes that are a priority as part of the elementary school transportation routing. This routing is set to maximize the number of students that will walk to and from school within the recommended distances. Students outside the required distance will be bussed to their school. The calculation used to determine bussing is the distance from the residence to the school property line. The existing problem with trail connections with school sites is that the school boards do not clear the trails during the winter on their sites. Many schools do not have formal trail connections to city trail routes. City staff has met with both boards to discuss options. The Waterloo District Catholic School Board staff has let City staff know that trail maintenance on school board property is not an option. The Waterloo District School Board has stated, for routes that simply take students to the school property, they have met the minimum transportation requirement to provide safe access. The Board's policy does not extend the trail inside the property line and there will be circumstances where there is no maintenance or hard surfaced trail that connects on the school site. Presently the trails are signed `Not Winter Maintained' for public notice. The Boards did not address all the other trail connections that are used daily by residents, secondary school accesses or other trail corridors that parent/students use to access elementary schools. Information gathered at the meeting showed that approximately 6,065 linear meters of trail would need to be winter maintained to provide a direct route for students walking to schools. Staff also reviewed the areas where residents have called Operations or their Councillor, requesting winter maintenance along trails for school access. These other requests from residents total approximately 3,950 linear meters for a total of approximately 10,015 linear meters (10 kilometers) of trail to winter maintain. Approximately, 9,230 linear meters of trail are constructed of stonedust while 787 linear meters are asphalted. Typical trails are built 3.0 meters wide for maintenance equipment access and safe passing distance between users going in different directions. Most trails in the city are constructed in stonedust for a solid surface at approximately $85.00 per linear meter. Asphalt trails are constructed for primary trails that are used as transportation routes. Asphalt trails are built to the same standard width at a cost of approximately $150.00 per linear meter. Retrofits of existing trails to upgrade from stonedust to asphalt cost approximately $100.00 per linear meter. Asphalt trails can be maintained just like sidewalks through the winter months. Trackless sidewalk plows with salters can scrape close to the finished surface; salt is applied to clear the walk to bare pavement. Stonedust trails can't be cleared to the finished trail surface. Stonedust does not freeze solid until well into the winter months. With a soft trail and an early snowfall, sidewalk plows peel up the surface and displace the stonedust onto the grass shoulders. This situation requires clean up in the spring and additional material placed on the trails to level out the surface. Salting the stonedust during the winter not only melts the ice and snow but also the surface of the trail and creates a mudding mess during the winter. To properly maintain a trail through the 6 - 2 winter months, the trail will need to be asphalted. Once asphalted, the trail will be inspected on a daily basis to ensure minimal risk and liability throughout the winter. Staff has met with one neighbourhood association and has held one public input session in Ward 6 to discuss winter trail maintenance. The purpose of these meetings was to address the areas where staff has received the most complaints over the past number of years regarding winter trail maintenance and access to the school. Residents attended the meeting to discuss the level of service during the winter months and the majority of comments received were for Glencairn Public School. Glencairn Public School Grade 1 & 2 students' submitted comments as well as on-line responses were received. Many of the comments brought forward dealt with getting to Glencairn Public School by the trail system and that without the trails, walking to the school by way of sidewalk would take close to 40 minutes one way from areas within the subdivision. The City can asphalt the identified trails within the Glencairn Public School community as a pilot project. To asphalt the trails that have been identified through this process in order to service Glencairn School the cost would be approximately $200,000 to retrofit just less than 2000 linear meters of trail. Maintenance Operations would cost approximately $30,000 to inspect these areas on a daily basis through the winter months. The operating cost would be charged to the capital budget through the pilot project. Staff will monitor the use of the trail throughout the winter. Monitoring will include the number of users at peak times of the day including mornings, lunch and end of the school day. Staff will also track the vehicular traffic around the school. Tracking vehicular use will assist in determining that a year round trail access will encourage walking to school instead of daily vehicle drop off. Staff will also continue to meet with neighbourhood associations to fully understand the use of trails for transportation to and from schools within the City. Staff will report back to Council on the findings and recommendation on future direction. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: The existing trails capital budget has sufficient funding to complete the asphalting and the two year winter operations of the trails. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: Staff has met with both the Waterloo District Catholic School Board, Waterloo Region Public School Board, Waterloo Region School Transportation Group and have engaged the public in the areas where the largest amount of complaints have been received. ACKNOWLEDGED BY: Dev Tyagi, Deputy CAO, Infrastructure Services 6 - 3