June 14, 2020 - Cramahe Roads Coalition Delegation to Cramahe Council

Tracy Kerr & Neil Ledger prepared a presentation to Cramahe Council on behalf of the Cramahe Roads Coalition.  Residents have reached a breaking point when it comes to the condition of their roads.  For years and years they have complained to the Township about local road conditions.  The band aid measures of grading roads and tossing cold patch into potholes do not provide a long term solution to the poor road conditions. The residents want their roads rehabilitated.  This is a copy of their presentation

Delegation by Cramahe Roads Coalition

June 10, 2020 - Gravel Road Construction & Maintenance Guide

Cramahe Township continues to struggle with the construction and maintenance of its gravel roads.  Periodically the roads crews regrade the gravel roads and then stand back to admire their handy work.  The road looks great after the regrade but it doesn't last.  They fail to realize that a gravel road needs three basic elements:

1. A crowned driving surface.  Roads that lack an adequate crown will quickly develop potholes and corrugations (washboarding) following rain or snow. 
2. A shoulder area that slopes directly away from the edge of the driving surface, and
3. A ditch  Obstruction of shoulder drainage is the biggest problem in water ponding on the road.

Gravel roads are generally maintained by routine blading and adding gravel as needed either by“spot graveling” or re-graveling entire sections.  The speed of the grader and the pitch and angle of the moldboard is critical in reshaping the road.  However, almost any gravel road will gradually begin to show distress over time that requires more than routine maintenance to correct.

There are four primary causes of corrugation/washboarding:

1. The driving habits of people
2. Lack of moisture
3. Poor quality of gravel
4. Lack of crown

The crown and ditches are problems on many Cramahe roads but the quality of the gravel needs special attention.  Simply put, good gravel must have the right blend of stone, sand, and fines. The stone should be fractured and the fine-sized particles should have a binding characteristic (“plasticity”). This type of gravel resists washboarding and will reduce the problem significantly.  Too often surface gravel is taken from stockpiles that have been produced for other uses.  For instance, the gravel could have been produced for use as base or cushion material for a paved road. There are two major differences between surface gravel and base (cushion) material.  Gravel for base material will generally have larger top-sized stone and a very small percentage of clay or fine material.  This is necessary for the strength and good drainage characteristics needed in base gravels. If this material is used as a surface gravel, it will not form a crust to keep the material bound together. It will become very difficult to maintain. Other gravel could have been produced simply as fill material for use at building sites. This material often has a high content of sand-sized particles which make it very drainable. This is a desirable characteristic in fill material since water can quickly flow through it and drain away from under building foundations and parking lots. But, if this material is used on a gravel road, it will remain loose and unstable.  A good gravel road needs gravel with sufficient fine material which has a plastic or “binding” characteristic.

Unless each of the three critical elements of gravel road construction are addressed, gravel road conditions will not be sutainable.

This is a document prepared by the US Department of Transportation and is a Gravel Roads Construction & Maintenance Guide Road Construction & Maintenance Guide

March 7, 2020 - Province Allocates Infrastructure Funds to Municipalities

The is an article published by Northumberland News.  It summarizes the money that has been allocated to surrounding Municipalities for infrastructure funding.  Northumberland News Article on Infrastructure Funding

This is audio from the March 3, 2020 Cramahe Council Meeting public question period.  The speaker is Gritt Koehl.

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February 4, 2018 - Cramahe Issue Paper-18-03

As part of its draft budget Cramahe Township has published Issue Paper CON-18-03.  To quote from the Issue Paper:

"This project is to fully rehabilitate the section of Ontario Street from Arthur Street south 220 meters to service the 12 semi-detached lots on the westerly portion of the Colborne Creek Subdivision. This will involve the installation of water, sewer and storm as well as curb and gutter and asphalt top. This will allow these lots to be sellable."

This is a misuse of taxpayers’ money.  The attached document was sent to members of Council and lists concerns with this project. Concerns With Cramahe Issue Paper CON-18-03

February 1, 2018 - Response From Jeff Hoskin - Road Rehabilitation Budget

This information was provided by the Cramahe Manager of Operations regarding the planned road work in the 2018 budget Cramahe 2018 Planned Road Work

January 29, 2018 - Questions Regarding 2018 Roads Budget

After reviewing the 2017 D.M. Wills Road Needs Study and examining the 2018 Cramahe Road rehabilitation budget the following questions were posed to Jeff Hoskin, Manager of Operations. 2018 Road Rehabilitation Questions

How Bad is Your Road? Have Your Say!

The CCA is looking for feedback from the citizens of Cramahe to find out whether or not their road has received any attention, and to give their assessment of the current condition of their road.

In 2011 Cramahe Council hired D.M. Wills & Associates to undertake a roads needs study of the entire Township. The CCA has prepared a summary of that report (shown below).

In this summary you will find background information on the roads network, a list of roads which should have been addressed by 2016 under the 5 year plan, followed by a 6 - 10 year plan to be completed by 2021.

The question everyone wants answered is "Which roads have in fact been done in the Township since the report came out in 2012?"

You can "Have Your Say" two ways! Please post your comments on Facebook (link top right), or send us an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

2011 D.M. Wills & Associates Roads Needs Study - CCA Summary

In 2011 a study was done to assess the road conditions in Cramahe. The report, which priortized the road network needs over a period of ten years, was submitted to Council in March 2012. You can access the full 231 page report here Cramahe Roads Need Study if you wish.

Cramahe's road infrastructure system spans a total of approximately 222 km. There are 140 urban and rural roads, which are paved, surface treated, and/or gravel. The 222 km of roads are categorized by surface as follows:

• 99 km of gravel roads
• 101 km of surface treated roads (LCB - low class bituminous)
• 22 km of asphalt paved roads (HCB - high class bituminous)

The CCA has prepared an alphabetical listing of all roads in the Township. This allows residents to see the score given for their road and whether or not it was short listed on the 5 year or 10 year plan. It is expected that roads will have deteriorated further in the 5 years since the Wills study was done.

Alphabetical Listing Of Township Roads (2012 Wills Study)

Each road was reviewed and scored from "1" (very poor) to "10" (excellent). Any road condition rating of "5" or less is considered to be deficient from a road surface standpoint and requiring immediate attention. Of the 222 km of roads assessed by D.M. Wills:

• 21 km were found to be critically deficient (falling below minimum tolerable standards)
• a total of 74 km were listed as deficient (needing to be addressed "Now")

A road surface was deemed deficient if:

• surface type was incorrect
• surface width was insufficient
• road could not accomodate peak traffic volumes
• road base was unable to support vehicular traffic
• surface condition rating was less than or equal to 5

The study went on to shortlist roads into 5 and 10 year plans, plus a shortlist of gravel roads. The information in the following tables has been extracted from the Wills shortlist. (Does not include the road rehabilitation method, road rehabilitation cost, water/sewer/storm services + road cost, or lower cost alternative rehabilitation method, due to costs from 5 years ago likely not relevant today.)

5 Year Plan Shortlist (Section # refers to Wills assessment page in study)

  10 Year Plan Shortlist

 Shortlist Gravel Roads