(File photo courtesy of the Municipality of Chatham-Kent website)(File photo courtesy of the Municipality of Chatham-Kent website)
Chatham

Municipal officials specify safety concerns with Talbot Trail as business slows in the area

A business owner in Wheatley is worried about a hit to his operations as Talbot Trail remains closed with no reopening date in sight.

Municipal officials closed the roadway from Coatsworth Road to Stevenson Road earlier this month, due to erosion concerns from Lake Erie.

Randy Robinson, the owner of Robinson Motorcycle, said the closure is already affecting business and calls the closure "abrupt" and "radical".

"Our drive-by traffic is down [approximately] 90 per cent," he said.

Robinson mentioned that since transport trucks would use Talbot Trail (formerly known as Highway 3) on a regular basis, truck drivers would often stop by to check out the dealership.

"Now, truckers are having to bypass this whole area completely because Coatsworth Road is a B classified road and the simple bypass that goes up Coatsworth, down [Concession Line 2] and back out to Highway 3... Stevenson Trucks aren't allowed to go on there," he said.

Detour routes have been posted but Robinson said they typically cause frustration for the customers that do travel out of their way to his business.

"Someone who lives east of the blockage... if they want to go to Wheatley, now they go up to Tilbury, down from Tilbury [and] into Wheatley," said Robinson. "Instead of being six minutes from Wheatley it's a 30-minute drive -- unless you take the gravel/dirt roads."

The business owner said he used to sit as a councillor back in the late '80s, before amalgamation. Even during his term, he said it was known that eventually, this type of issue would arise with Lake Erie.

"What should have been done -- what was talked about 20 or 30 years ago -- was to bring the whole road back 500 feet roughly, from the lake's bank," he said.

Robinson recently emailed a letter to municipal staff, a local councillor and the mayor with his concerns as a business owner, along with recommendations on how to remedy the issue. One of his recommendations is for Talbot Trail to be reopened and periodically monitored, adding that the road appears structurally stable.

However, Chatham-Kent's director of engineering and transportation, Chris Thibert, said although the road may appear fine to use, for now, there are things happening underneath the road that are cause for concern.

"The type of failure that's happening there is a combination of rotational failure and shear failure, what that means is the water levels and the wave energy coming from Lake Erie is slowly eating away at the underlying soils, which then causes the upper lying soils to drop," said Thibert. "That movement and that type of rotational failure is happening very quickly at this location -- much quicker than historical rates and it is creeping up on that south edge of the road."

Thibert said in addition to the shear failure, the granular base for the road is over-saturated and therefore heavy.

"Any additional weight at that location right now is just helping with the erosion and accelerating the erosion rates that are happening," he said. "That's why we made the call. We need to get everyone off of this road."

Thibert said municipal staff are hoping to have a report ready to present to council in the near future -- possibly the fall -- that will provide options -- if any -- to open Talbot Trail sooner rather than later. However, shifting the road or reopening it would not serve the long-term goals.

"The long-term goals coincide with the Lake Erie Shoreline study that is currently underway, which is investigating the entire shoreline and what the future is," said Thibert. "In about 50 years from now, based on historical rates, we're [going to] lose all of Talbot Trail at that location unless we do something about it. The solution is not very clear and easy [to make]."

In the email sent to municipal officials (and later forwarded to Blackburn News), Robinson had also suggested the construction of a new road that would essentially cut into landowner's property and act as a bypass.

Thibert said that option would not be one they would recommend to council for approval as it would only act as a temporary solution at a high cost.

"The recommendation is to proceed with something called a Municipal Class Environment Assessment, which will investigate short-term and long-term options and what the costs are," said Thibert. "Ultimately it will be up to council if they want to look at a short-term solution which is what this business owner is presenting, or do we look at a longer-term solution which is maybe removing Talbot Trail all the way to the next road to the north and thinking of that as the new Talbot Trail."

Thibert said he does recognize the inconvenience for residents in the area and the businesses that are trying to operate. He said efforts are being made to ease their concerns as a solution on what to do about erosion in the area are examined.

"We do understand that with the detour in place that there is a significant decrease in traffic fronting their property, which is definitely not the intention," he said. "We're going to look at additional signage to help promote the local businesses at the closure locations, as well as at the detour locations to make sure that they are being advertised well."

In the meantime, Thibert said they continue to keep the municipal Construction Projects website up-to-date with details of the road closure.

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