Quesnel City Council has approved it’s 2018 road rehabilitation and overlay paving program.
Chris Cobin, the Director of Infrastructure and Capital Works, went over the six projects that were chosen at this week’s meeting…
“On Doherty Drive, Willis Street, a portion of Pierce Crescent from Patchett to the top of the hill, Shepherd Avenue from Kinchant to Callanan, Lazzarin Street and Sargent Street, at an estimated cost of $376,900.”
These projects will be funded through the Capital Reinvestment Program.
They were selected with consideration given to road base condition, traffic use and the underground utilities not needing replacement in the near future.
Cobin says there is also a $100,000 budget in another account for volume patching.
The overlay program also doesn’t include bigger projects where the road needs to be totally rebuilt.
Mayor Bob Simpson says the idea of the overlay paving program is to try and prevent roads from getting to that point…
“What i think we really need is what roads are still capable of being overlaid, what roads are still capable of just being patched and maintained and what roads really are blown out where you don’t want to overlay and patch, and time those right. So it’s not so much lifting the overlay up unless there is a justification that you can capture a couple of roads that if you don’t get to in a year, then you get them blown out and then you’re going to get the more expensive one.”
Simpson adds that what the city needs ideally is a five year plan…
“Because ideally what you want is a plan sitting in front of the downstairs clerks where somebody phones and says “my road is a mess, when it’s going to,” and they go OK yours actually needs to be rebuilt and it’s going to be rebuilt in 2019, or no yours is an overlay program and it can go into next year’s overlay program.”