Results of Red Hill Valley Parkway public inquiry expected at the end of November

The commissioner appointed almost five years ago and tasked with the public inquiry into the safety of a major Hamilton, Ont., thoroughfare is set to reveal findings at the end of November.

In a release Tuesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Red Hill Valley Parkway Inquiry (RHVPI) said Commissioner Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel will make a virtual statement on the matter at 11 a.m. on Nov. 29.

At the centre of the query is a 2013 city staff report on the surface of the roadway — a document that was allegedly buried for six years.

The study suggested friction levels in some areas of the roadway were below safety standards.

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City council was briefed about the existence of the report in January 2019, after which it voted to request a judicial inquiry.

Since the opening of the parkway in 2007, a number of crash victims and families of victims have argued improper design and maintenance over the years has led to numerous incidents.

The city spent $8.5 million on an emergency resurfacing of the parkway in 2019.

City council has long insisted the report was never brought to its attention.

Since the inquiry began in 2022, Wilton-Siegel and colleagues have heard from dozens of witnesses and pored over thousands of documents in a process that is expected to cost the city $28 million – about three times what was set aside by council some three years ago, according to city solicitors.

The commissioner is expected to determine facts relating to 24 questions posed by city council, which fall into five general categories.

They include why testing from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation on the Red Hill Valley Parkway in 2007 was not disclosed to city council or the public, what the standards are for friction testing in Ontario, and other factors that potentially contributed to motor vehicle accidents on the thoroughfare.