Costs May Sink Kingsway Project

To the editor of the Sudbury Star

I travel the length of the Kingsway almost every day. I don't feel a great need to widen the roadway between Laking Toyota and Brady Street for the original $3.3 million city dollars, no matter how much the senior levels of government were kicking in. I certainly don't support the project if our local price tag jumps to over $8.0 million.

I am dismayed by all the large dollar widening and enhancement projects when the condition of many of our existing road surfaces are sub-standard. As a taxpayer, I suggest we should scrap this project, as well as others of this nature, and invest every road dollar we have in resurfacing what we already have. I would rather see $3.3 million of new asphalt than $8.0 million of widened roadway.

On a related note, perhaps the City staff needs to review the process they use to estimate project costs. This Kingsway project is not an isolated case, as you point out with your reference to the four laning of the Kingsway to the by-pass and the rock tunnel. How can council make rational decisions when the cost estimates provided to them are so far out of touch with reality?