Timeline for Red Hill Valley inquiry unknown amid COVID-19

The timeline for the Red Hill Valley Parkway inquiry is up in the air amid COVID-19.

The inquiry was launched in April 2019, after a 2013 report surfaced which found issues with asphalt friction on the road, the report was buried by city staff for years.

Robert Centa, the inquiry’s lead counsel, says they are still in the document collection phase. To date, the city has collected over 3 million documents from network drives, hardcopy documents and the mailboxes of over 100 former and current city employees.  The city’s lawyer says all files will be in by Monday.

The Red Hill was built by Dufferin Construction in 2006 and 2007. They used asphalt recommended by Golder Associates, that same company was used to investigate the Red Hill in 2013 after experiencing a high rate of crashes

This summer, the inquiry was supposed to hear from those impacted directly or indirectly by crashes on the parkway.

That won’t happen until the fall and will likely be done over the phone or in small gatherings because of COVID-19. It will likely be 2021 before public hearings begin.

To date, the city has spent more than $3.1 million on the inquiry.

At this point, there is no timeline for when the inquiry will be completed.