Hinchinbrooke Road Partial Closure Extended Until Further Notice

Jeff Green | Jul 21, 2021

At 3pm last Thursday (July 15), road crews working on the Hinchinbrooke Road construction project, the largest in South Frontenac this year, noticed that there had been a major “road failure” at the site of a newly installed culvert, just north of Silver Rock Lane, at Spring Lake.

The failure took place near the location where a new culvert had been put in the day before.

“With involvement from the township’s consulting engineer, a culvert replacement was underway at the location of the failure and had been proceeding without incident. Yesterday’s incident resulted in a portion of the east side of the road at this location collapsing into the adjacent swamp,” said a township press release the next day (July 14.

“I can’t really speculate about the cause of the failure,” said South Frontenac Chief Administrative Officer Neil Carbone in a telephone interview on Monday (July 19). “Clearly there was construction occurring right at that location. We are not going to really know what caused the failure until a geotechnical assessment is completed.”

Carbone said that about ¼ of the width of the road collapsed, for a length of about 50 metres.

“We aren’t sending any of our staff to that location until the assessment is done, for safety reasons. There are firms that specialise in this sort of work and they are the only ones who we want to see in the vicinity of that section of road. We don’t know how long the assessment will take. They will have to drill a number of bores to get a sense of how extensive the problem is.”

He said the township is hoping to have the hiring process completed by the end of this week.

“Only after we get the geo-technical report will we know when that happens and when the scope of the repair is understood, will township staff have an idea how long it will be before the road re-opens.”

Silver Rock Lake is about half the way along the Hinchinbrooke Road, which meets Road 38 at Hartington (where Atkinson’s Home Hardware and the local OPP detachment office are located). It runs more or less parallel to Road 38, providing access to a number of lakes, including Hambly, Verona, Mud, Little Pero, and 14 Island. It intersects with Desert Lake Road near Cranberry Lake. Silver Rock Lane is at about the midpoint of the distance between Road 38 and Desert Lake Road.

For commuters and seasonal residents on the lakes, the road closure will result in a detour of anywhere between 10 and 25 minutes, depending on their location.

The road construction project is continuing to proceed, avoiding the vicinity of Silver Rock Lane.

“Residents are reminded to avoid this area and to not cross the barriers put in place, as the road remains unsafe at this location, at this time. Emergency services have been notified of the indefinite closure and a public notice has been posted on the township’s website and social media,” said the township release. “The township appreciates the public’s patience and cooperation at this time.”

“I know that people are curious but it really is unsafe to go beyond the markers that we have put up at both ends of the closed section,” said Carbone. “We are not sending any of our staff there at all.”