Municipal Road Transfers

Urban Roads

• 3.5km of Grey Road 13 and 2.1km of Grey Road 113 in Thornbury (Town of the Blue Mountains)
• 2.1km of Grey Road 12 in Markdale and 2km of Grey Road 4 in Flesherton (Grey Highlands)
• 3.9km of Grey Road 4, 4.3km of Grey Road 10 in Hanover
• 4.2km of Grey Road 28 in the Town of Hanover/West Grey
• 1.1km of Grey Road 7 and 2.1km of Grey Road 12 in Meaford
• 6.4km of Grey Road 5 in Owen Sound and the Municipality of Meaford
• 5.9km of Grey Road 15 in Owen Sound
• 3.1km of Grey Road 1 in Owen Sound
• 2.7km of Grey Road 9 in Dundalk (Township of Southgate)
• 2.7km of Grey Road 4 and 0.5km of Grey Road 27 in Durham (West Grey)
• 0.6km of Grey Road 9 and 2.3km of Grey Road 10 in Neustadt (West Grey)
• 1.4kmof Grey Road 3 in Ayton (West Grey)
• 0.4km of Grey Road 40 in Chatsworth

Rural Roads

• Grey County will assume ownership of Southgate Sideroad 11 in exchange for a portion of Grey Road 14.
• Grey County will assume ownership of the Bentinck-Sullivan Townline in exchange for section of Grey Road 25 (between Scone and Grey Road 3).
• Grey County will assume ownership of Concession 5 Georgian Bluffs (former Derby) and Concession 6 in Chatsworth (former Sullivan).
• Grey County will assume ownership of a section of Concession 12 in West Grey between Highway 6 and Grey Road 3 in exchange for sections of Grey Road 9 between Highway 6 and Ayton, and between Grey Road 3 and Neustadt.

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Urban Roads

Transferring urban roads to the local municipalities will have a number of benefits for communities and municipalities.

• Faster response to issues – Municipal public works staff are based right within the municipality and can respond quicker than Grey County deploying staff from a depot or patrol route several kilometres away.
• Consistency with infrastructure – Right now, Grey County owns the road surface, but the local municipality owns most of the infrastructure under the road. Transferring roads will allow for more efficient and timely infrastructure repair and better project management for large scale replacement.
• Public understanding – Many residents don’t realize Grey County is the authority for some roads running through urban areas. This creates confusion when contacting the municipality to report issues, request permits, or ask questions.

Rural Roads

Transferring and or trading rural roads with local municipalities responds to changes in traffic patterns. Typically, drivers will travel a route that gets them to destinations quicker. As a result, some local roads are seeing higher traffic volumes than nearby County Roads. A transfer of roads between the County and municipalities may have several benefits including:

• Roads built to a higher standard where traffic counts are higher.
• More direct or convenient travel routes for drivers.
• More effect flow of people, goods and services.
• Some improved efficiency of winter road maintenance (plow routes)

Grey County is proposing the transfer of most urban roads in May of 2026.  Some roads need reconstruction work which will be completed by Grey County before transferring the road. This wok will be completed by October, 2026.

Rural road transfers will be staggered over several years. When Grey County receives a local road, the road will be upgraded to improve its structural integrity in response to the increased traffic volumes and functional demands, like more heavier vehicles. This work may be completed in phases over time.

Grey County roads and local municipal roads are meant to serve different purposes. County roads are meant to serve as primary roads, similar to highways, for moving larger volumes of vehicles between communities. Local or municipal roads connect homes, businesses and properties. These include streets and avenues in urban areas, and sideroads and concessions in the countryside. Typically, municipal roads see much less traffic than County roads or highways. For this reason, they are usually designed to be narrower, have a thinner asphalt surface (or sometimes a gravel surface). Local roads are also typically plowed less frequently in the winter.

Urban

To help local municipalities adjust to the urban road transfers, Grey County is proposing providing municipalities with annual transition funding for 10 years. This will offset the initial costs of maintaining more roads and allowing the time to ease into the additional costs.

The total budget for road transfers is $30,800,000 between 2026 to 2035.  Much of this cost to the County will be offset by a reduction in operating cost for maintaining the transferred roads.

Rural

The cost of exchanging rural roads between Grey County and local municipalities will depend on several factors that are not yet known. Local municipal roads and County Roads are built and maintained to different standards. New County roads will need to be upgraded over time to have a wider base and surface and some structures along proposed transfer routes will need to be replaced. 

Grey County is also proposing reconstructing sections of Grey Roads 9, 12 and 14 prior to transferring them to the local municipality. This work is estimated to cost around $7.3 million.  

Actual construction costs will not be known until projects are fully scoped and tendered.