Markham's road to ruin? Main Street ripped up twice in 4 years

YorkRegion.com
June 14, 2017
Tim Kelly

If you had a sense of déjà vu while trying to drive up Main Street Markham lately, don't worry -- your mind isn't playing tricks on you.

The City of Markham, for the second time in four years, has ripped up the road in the village. This time it's paving it over at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Four years ago, the city put in old-style cobblestone, also at a cost of hundreds of thousands out of a $5.5-million budget for long-term Main Street improvements from Hwy. 407 to Major Mackenzie Drive.

This job is necessary to remove the cobblestone that just didn't sit properly after it was installed in 2013-14.

Unlike the work that took months and months back in 2013, this job should be largely finished by next week, Coun. Karen Rea said.

"The repairs needed to be done, especially with all the rain the last two to three months, the pavement (cobblestone) was sinking," she said. "There is no good time to do it."

The project, which cost $351,000, will include a further $5,000 in annual maintenance for a total of $451,000 over a 20-year span.

Rea said the dust hasn't settled over a construction fiasco that saw the road ripped up again.

"There's an issue of who is to blame that is being dealt with by the city solicitor and it's between them and the planning staff," she said.