New curbs causing headaches for some Southwold Township farmers

The installation of new curbs along a road that runs through a hamlet in Southwold Township, south of London, Ont., is getting the goat of some local farmers.

The curbs were added to Union Road, which runs through the heart of the rural community of Shedden, and replaced a more sloped design.

They make getting equipment from one place to another a lot more difficult, said farmer Nick Hoffsuemmer.

“The curbs that they’ve put up don’t allow us to really get up, over and off to the side. [They] make it hard on the equipment,” Hoffsuemmer said. “It’s becoming more difficult for farm machinery to move through and it’s a lot less safe for us to get through there, too.”

While the road isn’t actually any more narrow than it once was, the 90-degree curbs make it impossible for large agricultural equipment to move over to allow other vehicles by.

Other farmers in the area agree it's a problem, Hoffsuemmer said. “We’re hearing more and more about it.”

South of Shedden, in Fingal, a similar project is planned, causing more concern for local farmers.

“They’re trying to make it more of an urban centre, but it’s really a rural area,” Hoffsuemmer said.

The new curbs are part of the Shedden and Fingal Sanitary Servicing Project. The township is becoming less rural and is expecting more growth because of industrial developments in the region, said Aaron VanOorspronk, Southwold Township's director of infrastructure and development services.

Planners are increasingly balancing the needs of rural and urban residents, he said, including pedestrians and cyclists. Raised curbs are an important safety measure, VanOorspronk said.

“Design philosophy is shifting to narrowing of roads to encourage drivers to use the posted speed. The upper limit of recommended width for 60 km/h or under is 3.7 metres," he said.

"The width here is at the upper recommendation. We tend to push to the upper recommended limits to try and accommodate as much of that agricultural equipment as we can."

Officials ask drivers of both farm equipment and passenger vehicles to be patient and make room for one another when possible, VanOorspronk said.

“There is [also] an alternate route that's just a couple minutes east of Union Road that they can use to fully traverse around Fingal and Shedden,” he added.