The Red Hill Inquiry was ordered by the city in 2019 after a number of fatal crashes on the roadway. Photo Credit: Red Hill Parkway Inquiry.
City of Hamilton staff released their first management update regarding the progress made on the recommendations set out in the Red Hill Valley Parkway (RHVP) Inquiry Report.
The Red Hill Inquiry was ordered by the city in 2019 after a number of fatal crashes on the roadway. The inquiry cost the city $28 million.
The final report was written by Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel, released on Nov. 29, 2023, and determined that “relatively low RHVP friction levels were a likely contributor to collisions” prior to 2019, when the road was repaved.
The inquiry also provided 36 recommendations.
The report by City of Hamilton staff was submitted by Carlyle Khan the General Manager of the Public Works Department, noting that City of Hamilton management agreed with all 36 recommendations in the Red Hill Inquiry and that they have been categorized into eight categories.
The categories are: traffic safety, delineating the roles and responsibilities of city staff, the culture within the Public Works Department, information sharing and communication among staff, staff reporting obligations, staff communications with the media and public, consultant engagements and assignments, and staff reports.
Much of the RHVP Inquiry centred around the actions of the now retired City of Hamilton Director of Engineering Services Gary Moore, who kept a document called the Tradewind Report, which involved friction testing, relatively secret.
The Tradewind Report raised questions about the friction on the RHVP and recommended “a further examination of the pavement surface, composition, and wear performance” of the parkway.
Wilton-Siegel wrote in the inquiry that: “At a minimum Mr. Moore should have ensured that a further investigation into the pavement condition was completed to understand the circumstances resulting in the low friction levels.”
Wilton-Siegel continued that there “was no justification for Mr. Moore’s failure to provide a copy to his colleagues” and that he regards it as “misconduct” on the part of Moore.
Furthermore, Wilton-Siegel wrote: “In addition, Mr. Moore provided inadequate, incomplete, or inaccurate information about the Tradewind Report and/or Tradewind’s friction testing and the results thereof on three occasions,” including to the media, which also constitutes as “misconduct.”
The staff report to council notes that an interdepartmental working group has been established and an action plan to manage the city’s response to the inquiry is already underway.
Staff hope to complete tasks throughout 2024 but note that “larger implementations that are city-wide may require additional time and therefore have been identified in 2025.”
Council will continue to receive updates bi-annually and the next update will be provided in December 2024.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
