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TOWNSHIP OF PERTH EASTITEM #7.2.1

REPORT

TO: Council

PREPARED BY: Glenn Schwendinger, Chief Administrative Officer

DATE: October 18, 2011

SUBJECT MATTER / REFERENCE: Highway 7/8 UpdateATTACHMENTS: None

______________________________________________________________________

RECOMMENDATION:

That Council receives for information the October 18th

, 2011 Report entitled Highway 7/8Update;

BACKGROUND

As Council is aware, the Ministry of Transportation has been undertaking an EnvironmentalAssessment for some time on Highway 7/8 between New Hamburg and Stratford. Anumber of meetings, consultations, and presentations have taken place throughout thistimeframe.

Earlier this year, the MTO had indicated that they intended to release information regarding

the preferred route selection sometime through this summer.As no communications have been received to this point yet in this regard, staff requested anupdate on the status of this undertaking. The following response was received from theMinistry of Transportation:

After careful review and consideration of stakeholder input received from the lastround of PICs in January 2011, MTO is proceeding with the preliminary design of thepreferred route that was presented at the last round of PICs held in January 2011.

The agricultural community continues to have some concerns. As a result, MTO hascommitted to holding additional agricultural community consultations later this fall.As you are aware, we had originally scheduled the next round of PICs to presentpreliminary design alternatives last spring or summer. Given the outstandingconcerns of the agricultural community and the need to undertake additional targetedconsultations, we have postponed the PICs until these consultations can beundertaken at a time that is convenient to the agricultural stakeholders.

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Following the additional consultations this fall, we hope to move the study forward bypresenting the preliminary design alternatives at another round of PICs in early2012. The study team will again consider comments received. Provided there areno significant concerns that require addressing, we will proceed with alternativeevaluations and selection of the preferred preliminary design alternative. Thepreferred alternative will also be presented to stakeholders at another round of PICstentatively scheduled for mid 2012.

Throughout this process, we will continue our municipal and agency consultations.

In the meantime, regular maintenance activities such as replacement of drivingsurfaces, drainage and localized operational improvements may occur on Highway7&8 as required.

Staff will continue to monitor this issue and will keep Council informed when updatesbecome available.