Portion of Hamilton’s Barton Street to be repaired over summer for road relief

Anyone who drives along Barton Street East probably isn’t surprised by the road being named “the Worst in Ontario” by CAA, and for many residents, it’s a title years in the making.

The good news is that the City of Hamilton says a major resurfacing project is finally around the corner.

The city says reconstruction work is expected to start in the next few weeks, with crews resurfacing about 4 km of road between Victoria Avenue North and Kenilworth Avenue North.

For many residents, it’s a long-awaited fix to a road that’s been a rough ride for years.

“Please let us know when we’re starting, and please get it done soon,” said Jay Coulson, a local resident.

“Would be nice if the city, you know, be on top of that, because the taxes we pay, they’re not cheap,” said Ana Cardoso, a local resident.

Residents are sending a message to the City of Hamilton, just a day after Barton Street East topped CAA’s Worst Roads in Ontario list.

They say they’ve been dealing with potholes, rough driving conditions, and costly vehicle repairs for years.

READ MORE: Barton Street East reclaims the crown as Ontario’s worst road: CAA

The city says a long-term fix is finally on the way, with a major resurfacing project expected to begin in the next few weeks.

“The first thing that will happen is the construction crews will go in and fix up some of the broken curbs and disrepairs, and then come along and shave the pavement off and replace the pavement,” said Brian Hollingworth, the City of Hamilton director of engineering services.

Hollingworth says the work will start in the east end on Kenilworth Avenue and continue west to Victoria Avenue North.

The city invests about $150 million a year in roadway infrastructure. Of that, $5 million has been allocated to the Barton Street Resurfacing Project.

“It will take a few months, but we hope to be done by the end of the summer,” said Hollingworth.

For many drivers, that investment can’t come soon enough.

The road’s condition has been a source of frustration for years as residents and drivers say patchwork repairs only go so far.

“They’ll fix one little area and then they come back the next year, and they fix the same little area, but the rest of the roads are deteriorating — getting worse and worse all the time,” said another local resident Paul Ward.

Local auto shops say they see the impact of those road conditions every day.

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“Most of the time, customers give us a little bit of grief,” said Michael Arnott, from Arnott’s Automotive. “They say ‘we just fixed this six months ago’ and then we have to explain to them ‘you know it’s the wonderful Hamilton roads that do this to your car’.”

“It’s been a bad year for bent rims, cracked rims and most of it is because of Barton Street,” said Steve Groom with Wheel Wizard’s Rim Refinishing.
He says those repairs can add up quickly for drivers, “$200 for twenty-inch and under, $250 for anything over twenty-inch.”

In May, the city launched a pothole blitz that included parts of Barton Street East, but officials say those repairs were never meant to be a permanent solution.

Now, the focus is shifting to a larger project that the city says will address the road surface across the entire corridor.

“One of the reasons why it has degraded, is the city has been planning a long-term infrastructure renewal project for Barton Street so that it would see water, sewer, and everything under the road replaced and then resurfaced,” said Hollingworth.

The city says that larger infrastructure renewal project is still in the planning stages.

In the meantime, this summer’s resurfacing work is intended to provide relief for drivers using the corridor every day.

“The city has been working on plans for Barton Street for sometime now,” said Hollingworth. “We have a contractor ready to go and start. We apologize to folks who’ve had to travel Barton Street over the past few years, given its condition.”

READ MORE: Portion of Barton St. East to close for two weeks to repair watermain