A section of Rose Beach Line over South Creek Marsh that closed in 2018 due to slope and bank failure caused by erosion from Lake Erie is now closed permanently.
A section of Rose Beach Line over South Creek Marsh that closed in 2018 due to slope and bank failure caused by erosion from Lake Erie is now closed permanently.
Director of engineering Chris Thibert said work on a new private laneway, approved by council that goes behind four properties fronting Rose Beach Line, between Atrium Road and Hill Road, has been completed.
“Now that we have that temporary laneway in place, servicing those properties, we can now officially close the road due to those erosion threats that our out there,” he said.
The whole purpose of providing a new access behind these properties is allowing them the ability to have a lot more property to the south, Thibert said.
He added it is now the property owners’ “responsibility to do what they need to do to reside there for as long as possible.”
He noted the municipality will continue to provide services to those property owners as long as they are there.
Constructing the private laneway was a preferred alternative brought to council in June 2021 as the cost to repair the small section of Rose Beach Line was pegged at nearly $7.8 million.
Thibert said the final conclusion of a municipal class environmental assessment of recommended “upgrading New Scotland Line to a proper urban arterial standard all the way from Kent Bridge Road to Hill Road and making that the new roadway connection, because of the future instability of Rose Beach Line.”
He said EA conclusion was is in line with a recommendation in the Lake Erie Shoreline Study that the municipality “retreats” because it is “not economically feasible to repair the road in its current location.”
The larger scale project of upgrading New Scotland Line is a “far future” project because of many capital demands across the municipality with a higher demand, Thibert said.