Williams Lake Council will be directing staff to amend the five-year capital plan with the recommended road rehabilitation annual amount of $1.25 million per year for 2019 to 2027.
That comes following this week’s Committee of Whole Council meeting on Tuesday.
“Council has taken the position that that’s the very minimum amount that we need to put into our infrastructure in basically milling and paving inside the community’s streets,” says councilor and chair of the finance committee Scott Nelson.
“Last year we put $1.9 million dollars in but for the next 10 years we’re committing that amount. So we’re just trying to ensure that we’ve got that very minimum amount.”
Nelson adds that every year they are probably going to be adding more.
“We know that we need to have an average of about $1.2 to $1.3 million dollars every year in minimum paving in our community, and we recognize and we’ve committed that if there are additional funds required that we’re prepared to put that as a top priority to ensure that asphalt recycling in our community is significantly on the top of the list.”
35% of the City’s road network is considered to be in poor or very poor condition and has not been rehabilitated according to a draft 2018 Pavement Management System Update report.
Nelson says if the roads are not maintained to a minimum standard as of right now, it will cost five times the amount to rehabilitate them.