Back to SearchThe Township of Blandford-Blenheim and the County of Oxford have determined that all streets in Princeton are to be reconstructed to an urban standard complete with curb and gutters
As part of the road reconstruction the municipalities require the existing drainage systems to be enlarged and to have appropriate storm water management facilities (SWMF). (See drawing attached showing streets and drainage.)
Since most existing drainage in Princeton has been installed pursuant to the Drainage Act, all new drainage work will also be pursuant to the Drainage Act and will be known as the Princeton Drainage System 2022
The desire to reconstruct roads and drainage was made known many years ago but the project never moved forward until a decision regarding sanitary sewers was made
Since that time, the project has progressed but again slowly due to COVID interruptions and due to lengthy proceedings regarding various design aspects
The design of all road, drainage and storm water management facilities is now nearing completion and the costs for improvements have been established
The share of the costs to be borne by each property for drainage improvements has also been established
Details re Proposed Road Improvements
All existing Township roads, both north and south of the CN will be reconstructed, including Roper Street for 500 metres east of Main Street
Generally for Township roads, the widths of the new asphalt roads will be 7.3m (24’) and there will be 0.5m (20”) wide mountable curb and gutters on each side (similar to work done in Plattsville 10± years ago-)
Existing sidewalks will be retained on most streets. On a couple of streets, sidewalks will be reconstructed and on a few streets, new walks will be constructed where such did not previously exist
All driveways will be reconstructed. Gravel driveways between the sidewalk or property line (whichever is closer) will be replaced with asphalt, and concrete and paving stone driveways will be replaced with similar materials as existing to the extent they need to be regraded
Parking areas in most locations will be similarly reconstructed but in a number of locations, parking areas will be reduced or removed
The balance of boulevard areas will be topsoiled and sodded
Most trees in the road allowances will be retained but several will be removed
New cul-de-sacs will be constructed on some dead end streets
On Main Street, which is a County Road, new barrier curb and gutters with cut-outs at driveways will be constructed to replace the existing and similar curbs
On Main Street, the new width of asphalt between the front edges of the curb and gutters will vary from 9.1m (30’) to 12m (40’)
Generally the widths of County Road asphalt will be similar to existing. However, between Elgin Street and County Road 2, the width is reduced and existing parallel parking will be removed, as per County of Oxford policy
County Road 2 will not be reconstructed although there will be new drainage work along its north side between Main Street and Middletown Line
Main Street driveways and boulevards will be reconstructed as described for Township Roads
Minimal tree removal should be necessary on Main Street
Details re Proposed Drainage Improvements
Most existing municipal drain pipes and catchbasins on existing streets will be removed
Most existing municipal drains downstream of the streets will remain. Some will revert to the status of a private drain and others will remain as municipal drains
Then a new drain will be constructed, in almost all locations, on each street including Main Street
The new drainage system being constructed will differ from the existing system in Princeton. Presently some drains exist as part of the Ficzere Drain, some along Roper Street outlet to, and are part of the Barker Drain, some are part of the Princeton Drainage Works which outlets to the Barker Drain, and the balance are part of the South Princeton Drainage Works which outlets to County Road 2. Most drains on Main Street, although cross-connected in two locations to the existing municipal drains on Township Roads, do not currently have the status of “Municipal Drain” but the new drains will after this new work is completed. In the new system, all street drains will be municipal drains and all will outlet at County Road 2 after passing through storm water management facilities (SWMF’s)
To allow the street drainage north of the CN to outlet to the south, all north street drainage (except for the east part of Roper Street which will remain in the Barker Drain) will be brought to and across the CN using the McQueen Street road allowance and a linking corridor across CN and then along the McQueen Street corridor if extended through the Township park (west of the ball diamond outfield fences) south to and across Peter Street and into a SWMF (formerly called the Matheson facility – now to be called the Romano SWMF once enlarged)
All Township Street drainage west of Main Street will also outlet into this new outlet drain along the McQueen Street corridor
The second outlet drain will be along Main Street from the CN southerly to Emma Street, then easterly to the end of Emma Street and then southerly to a further new storm water management facility to be constructed on the site of the former Van Wees greenhouses (which will be removed in the near future). This new facility will be called the Greenhouse SWMF
The small area of Main Street from Emma Street south to the Grand River Mennonite Church (GRMC) property can not be physically graded and drained to either the Romano or Greenhouse facility but it can be drained to the existing Van Wees SWMF that is on the north side of County Road 2 opposite Middletown Line Road, and to do so, a new pipe will be placed along the south limits of the GRMC property
There will be new catchbasins on each side of the new roads within the new curb and gutters at approximately a 90m (300’) spacing
In some locations where boulevards can not be graded to the new curb and gutters, either existing boulevard catchbasins will be retained or new boulevard catchbasins will be constructed
As part of each new street drain, a new private drain connection (PDC) will be constructed on each existing property
Each new PDC will terminate at the property line and will have a backwater valve (BWV) placed at its end, to which the owner’s drain will be connected. In those cases where the owners’ drain coming to the existing PDC serves as an outlet for pumped (over the wall drainage from the owner’s house) a BWV will not be necessary. A cap will be placed on the BWV lead where no drain exists on the lot. If the owner’s drain is carrying sanitary (septic) waters or roof waters, a connection will not be made until such time as the sanitary or roof waters are directed elsewhere (as per Township policy)
The drainage system being recommended will ensure that all surface waters when in excess of the drain’s capacity have a gravity outlet without ponding, as is currently the situation
In some areas, these overflow (excess) waters will continue to the existing drain outlets (Ficzere, Barker or Princeton Drainage Works), but in most cases, the surface water overflow can be directed to the new storm water management facilities
There will be provisions in the new report to ensure that any existing overflow routes are recognized and protected
Details re Proposed Storm Water Management Facility (SWMF) Work
Currently there are two storm water management facilities serving urban areas of Princeton. Firstly, there is the Van Wees facility on the north side of County Road 2 opposite Middletown Line (in Brant) that serves primarily only as an outlet for pipes / storm drains on Township Roads south of the CN and east of Main Street
Secondly is the Matheson SWMF located to the west of Main Street and to the north of County Road 2 on lands originally owned by Matheson, more recently owned by Romano, and now owned by the Township
This facility serves as the outlet for pipes (storm drains) on Township Roads south of the CN and west of Main Street
Surface waters from most of the roads west of Main Street and from the farm fields in the watershed west of the roads do enter the Matheson SWMF but management of these surface waters is limited to the runoff from a low volume runoff event. Waters from existing runoff events greater than the design standard of the pipes would primarily just flow through the SWMF
It should be noted that neither the existing drains nor the surface waters on Main Street south of the CN outlet into either existing SWMF other than for the small portions at cross-connections by the existing Emma Street and Elgin Street Branches. The new work will have almost all new Main Street piped drainage discharging into a SWMF
With respect to proposed work:
The Matheson pond will be expanded and deepened and will be known as the Romano SWMF
The Van Wees SWMF will be retained and cleaned but will serve a slightly reduced watershed
new facility to be known as the Greenhouse SWMF will be constructed on lands now owned by the Van Wees family and in the location where the former greenhouses existed
With respect to some details of each facility:
The Romano facility will serve as the outlet for new pipe drains from all roads in the new watershed north of CN and from all roads in the watershed south of CN and west of Main Street. Surface waters naturally tributary to the facility (basically the urban and rural lands south of CN and west of Main Street) will enter and be better controlled by the new facility. Surface waters in excess of drain capacity will be brought to the Romano SWMF but will drain as existing
The Romano SWMF will also have sufficient capacity for any possible and tributary urban development that has been discussed to date, except where the possible development is too low-lying
The new facility’s size and capacity will be more that triple that of the existing Matheson facility
Its piped outlet will however be similar in size and capacity to that servicing the existing Matheson facility and will discharge at the existing 1200mm culvert across the former Highway 2
The existing Van Wees SWMF will be retained as is but will have a bottom cleanout. It will only serve as the outlet for pipe drains from a small watershed involving Main Street between Emma and the Grand River Mennonite Church (GRMC) property and tributary lands including the GRMC property (as an urban area)
Its outlet is also to the 1200mm pipe across County Road 2
With respect to the new Greenhouse SWMF, it will occupy a slightly smaller sized area than the Romano facility and will have slightly less capacity. Its watershed will be all of Main Street between the CN and Emma Street, all of the Township streets east of the same length of Main Street and it too will have sufficient capacity for residential developments that have been discussed on the Van Wees and former public school lands
Its outlet will be a small diameter pipe also leading to and discharging on the upstream side of the same 1200mm pipe across the former Highway 2
As a result of both the new drains and the SWMF work proposed, the peak flows across former Highway 2 into Brant will not be increased but will be reduced. However, low flow durations will be extended. The Holt Drain, which is the outlet drain in Brant, may need an improvement by adding a helper drain beside it. If such is done pursuant to the Drainage Act, small assessments to all properties in Princeton will result
Details of Costs and Cost Sharing
The estimated cost of the full project is: $ 17,600,000
The road work portion of this cost is: $7,250,000
The drainage work including the SWMF work portion of this cost is:$10,350000
The road work cost will be borne by the Township and County Road departments
The drain work cost will be split between the privately owned lands ($2,250,000), the Township Road Department ($5,450,000) and the County Road Department ($2,650,000)
The privately owned lands’ share of $2,250,000 will be assessed such that most existing residential properties in Princeton will be assessed between $5,500 and $6,000 (vacant lots less). If any property does not require a BWV on its PDC lead, the property’s assessment will be reduced by $500
Those properties that could be developed and that have a SWMF capacity provided, will be assessed equivalent to approximately $10,000 per acre. Some of these developable properties may have additional assessments due to existing drains on their lands being abandoned as a result of the new work
Process Going Forward
After the Open House on April 21 and any follow-ups, work will continue to finalize the design, drawings and the Report for this project
It is expected that the Report will be submitted in May/June. Following that, public meetings to review the Report as per the Drainage Act requirements will commence
It is hoped that all procedures of the Drainage Act will be completed so construction work could commence this fall
Early works to be completed are expected to be the Romano SWMF and the CN crossing
It is anticipated work will not be completed until 2025
This drawing also indicates the planned staging of construction
K. A. Smart, P.Eng
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