Preparing against a decade of potholes

Times Contributor    

 

Part of the county planning process is deciding what work needs to be done and when, and for the General Manager of Transportation and Infrastructure Dave Churchill, it is also determining the road less travelled and why.  

To keep up with the never ending need for road maintenance, and to fulfill a directive council has made to give area residents access to paved roadways, a 10-year plan is put in place and reviewed on an ongoing basis. The draft 2014-2024 plan was reviewed in council on Dec. 17.

“I went through all this and to be realistic, it is based on completing about 10 km per year,” said Churchill. “The biggest issue is trying to get a grid system, so that every six miles there is a paved road.”

Road grading and paving projects are given priority ratings based on their condition against a balance of financial, manpower and equipment resources. Then projects are planned in the order of their priority. The 2014 interim budget document indicates restricted reserves will place $4.17 million on paved roads, and $4.5 on unpaved with $8.7 million being carried over from 2013 reserves. Some funds will also have to go for bridge repair and other small projects. The document said 2014 will include a double seal coat for the Cheadle railway avenue at a cost of $350,000, with 50 per cent of that coming from paved road reserve and street improvement grants, showing that even short sections of road recovery are expensive.

For 2014-2015, road crews will finish off one mile of the north-south road on Hammerhill, grading two miles on RR 240, from Hwy 1 to TR 244, and six miles on RR 255 from TR 244 to TR 254 west of 20-25-25. Three miles of paving will be done on Township road 220 by east Cluny and Hwy 842 (RR 214) to Hwy 1 (RR 211). 

Churchill gave council a quick look at proposals for future projects, with the disclaimer that the plan is not set in stone and it might be shifted somewhat to accommodate emergent situations. 

“We have taken council’s input in the past. Circumstances change, traffic flows change…we usually revise it on a yearly basis,” said Churchill.

He anticipates 2016 will have portions of the boundary road and Hwy  817 attended to, with 2017 moving on to RR 245 by the north extension of the Eagle Lake road, RR 243 by the shop in Nightingale, RR 250 and RR 225 by 13 mile corner.  Paving will be done on the Duck Lake road in 2016-2017. Portions of Township 270 will be paved in 2018 and portions of RR 224 in 2019. The Eagle Lake road will be paved to the slaughterhouse road in 2020, with RR 244-245 by Namaka Lake in 2021/2022. A map of areas which crews are working on is posted on the County website.

The purchase of a new grader is being planned for in the 2014 budget and will go to Division 10, at a price of $500,000 with $375,000 coming out of MSI capital funds. Other equipment will come out of funds designated in fleet and equipment funding reserves.

Councillor Brenda Knight questioned if equipment is working in a certain area, wouldn’t it be more cost effective and time efficient to finish a bigger portion of the project, rather than doing smaller jobs here and there. She said sometimes it leaves the public with a perception that crews leave the project unfinished. 

Churchill said that the county just doesn’t have the equipment and manpower to do larger jobs and meet its targets. He said there really needs to be a good discussion with all council on the road plan. 

“The first thing residents see are the roads,” said Councillor Rex Harwood.” We look to staff for that information. I want to be part of that discussion.”

Chief Administrative Officer Alan Parkin said that staff welcome the input they are given and councillors often hear concerns from the community first, so he indicated if council was interested there could be discussions set up in the new year, to get direction before the plan is finalized.

Churchill said people need to keep in mind that the crews do a lot more work with the equipment than just road maintenance. If specialized equipment is purchased, there may not be enough work to really recoup the cost of purchase.

“Our crews are efficient at two to three miles of project. We aren’t set up as contractors, the crews are designed for smaller jobs,” said Churchill. 

He said larger crews with more equipment could complete seven miles in a year, but currently those types of jobs have to be tendered out. If he were to plan for work to be completed in that manner, he would need a bigger budget.

Councillors also were concerned about shoulder moulding programs on the county roadways, and in light of funding cuts from government sources, they didn’t want to see staff cut corners to make up funding shortfalls. They asked staff to come up with some different avenues that could be explored for meeting  larger road targets as well as their day to day work, and estimate what the potential costs may be, bringing them to council for consideration.

Hope Church on Jan. 25. Hope Church brings in many different kinds of music experiences for the public, and Eygeraam said local youth shouldn’t be worried about the venue and come out to what promises to be a fun night.

“There is some youth that don’t enjoy church or come to church, so we just want to have an energetic night that we hope they will enjoy,” said Eygenraam.

Check out the website www.hope-community.ca, where more details and times will be posted.