Policy · Roads · Ward 2 Roads That Work for Clarington Joshua Glover  |  Candidate for Councillor, Ward 2

In Clarington, congestion is increasingly affecting how residents move through the community, get to work and access essential services. These pressures are particularly evident in Ward 2:

• Baseline Road & Duke Street: A persistent bottleneck near Highway 401.
• Highway 2 / King Street West: Daily congestion.
• Waterfront Access: Limited north-south connections.

With more than 8,000 homes planned for the Bowmanville West Major Transit Station Area alone, growth cannot outpace the capacity of our transportation network.

Transportation is a shared governmental responsibility. Local roads fall primarily under Clarington, major arterials such as Liberty Street and Highway 2 are Regional, while Highway 401 and its interchanges involve the Province. Addressing Clarington's transportation pressures therefore requires a coordinated, evidence-based approach across all three levels of government.

Rural Roads Are Essential Economic Infrastructure

Clarington's rural roads support agriculture, local businesses, freight movement and emergency services across a large rural municipality.

The 2025 Asset Management Plan shows the condition pressures facing that network. The average Pavement Condition Index (PCI) for rural asphalt roads is just 56.9, compared with 67.0 for surface-treated roads and 76.7 for gravel roads.

Maintaining that network requires more than simply paving the worst road each year. Clarington needs to match rehabilitation methods and capital investment to road condition, traffic volumes, drainage and the demands placed on individual routes.

Policy Commitments

Urban congestion and rural infrastructure present different challenges, but both require practical, long-term planning.

When elected Councillor for Ward 2, I will advocate for seven practical actions:

1. Review the Baseline & Duke Bottleneck: Table a Council motion directing staff to formally evaluate the Baseline Road and Duke Street intersection using traffic counts, traffic modelling and established engineering warrants. Integrate the review into existing funded network studies to identify practical layout improvements and reduce queue spillback toward Highway 401.

2. Make Traffic Flow Part of Development Design: Where Clarington holds statutory site-plan authority under the Planning Act, require new developments to incorporate safe, efficient access points—including dedicated turning bays, right-in/right-out configurations and internal queuing buffers—so private traffic does not unnecessarily spill onto adjacent public corridors.

3. Elevate Bowmanville's 401 Interchanges as a Regional Priority: Work directly with Clarington's Regional Councillors to ensure Bowmanville's interchange bottlenecks and arterial pinch points are formally prioritized in Durham Region's Transportation Master Plan and provincial Ministry of Transportation consultation.

4. “Right Surface, Right Time” Road Upgrades: Establish an objective, lifecycle-based framework to guide rural road surfacing decisions, considering pavement condition, traffic volumes, sub-base drainage and heavy agricultural demands so capital is directed where it can extend road life most cost-effectively.

5. Protect Agricultural Goods Movement: Prioritize structural lifecycle rehabilitation of municipal bridges and major drainage culverts along primary agricultural routes, reducing unnecessary load-restriction detours for farm machinery, commercial vehicles and emergency services.

6. Deploy Strategic Living Snowbreaks: Build on Clarington's Trees for Rural Roads program by working with local Conservation Authorities, including CLOCA and GRCA, and willing rural landowners to establish strategic, deep-setback living snowbreaks along severely wind-exposed corridors—reducing winter drifting, salt use and municipal plowing demands.

7. Sustain Rural Road Resurfacing Capacity: Protect rural road rehabilitation within the multi-year capital budget, maintaining a benchmark objective of approximately 22 kilometres annually where supported by road conditions, construction costs and available capital.

Clarington's transportation challenges will not be solved by one intersection, one resurfacing project or one level of government. We need to manage the network as a whole: addressing urban bottlenecks, planning transportation alongside growth, protecting the rural infrastructure that supports our agricultural economy and pressing the Region and Province to address the corridors within their jurisdiction.

I have experience working across different levels of government and bringing people and institutions together to advance local priorities. That is a councillor's responsibility when an issue extends beyond municipal boundaries: build the relationships, make the case and pursue practical solutions.

On October 26, vote Joshua Glover for Peace, Order, and Good Governance.