Seeing how the city’s new mantra is user pay, I have an idea to make the paving dollars go twice as far. It is based on the HOV lanes in the lower mainland, on all roads that have two lanes going in the same direction – only repave one lane- if you want to use it you will have to pay for an easy pass-Shari can expense her’s for Tabor;)

One added bonus, if you pave the inside lane it might teach PG drivers the keep right except to pass concept.

LOL…. I especially like the last option.

What ever happened to the option of heating it up, lifting it and laying it back down. I seldom see a burner working anymore. Has that become too expensive?

That option, Hot in Place Asphalt Recycling, was shown to Council. It is, a common option used by highways.

In fact, while in the south a couple of weeks ago, there was a project between Cache Creek and Kamloops and another one on the Coquihalla.

The cost indicated by the city is $13/m2. It is by far the cheaper option and, I believe, the best option from the point of view of service performance. It certainly has proven to work well with highway traffic.

The negative attributes of this were shown to be
1. Difficult (but not impossible) to do on roads with manholes
2. Small project MAY not draw interest from contractors.

With respect to the latter concern, it was suggested by someone to look at going to something like 2 year resurfacing cycles, maybe even 3. The rationale was that it would save money from the point of view of trying to chase the relatively high price escallation. That is something like a dog chasing its own tail.

However, it would allow for larger projects which could bring in competition from outside PG (Kelowna prices are significantly less).

In watching the presentation last night, I was not impressed with the lack of “get the job done” mindset by staff.

“In watching the presentation last night, I was not impressed with the lack of “get the job done” mindset by staff.”

You were expecting something else from municipal workers? The most useless group of people on the planet.

I know many people who work for the city, and they are amazing. Faxman, you are very much offside in your comments and should be ashamed for writing such drivel.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/03/19/bloombergs-1-man-pothole-filling-machine-leaves-a-hole-lot-unanswered

That news item was posted March 19, 2012 …. 3 months later, we are still wondering who has the machine and how well does it perform ……

The manufacturer does not seem to be forthcoming with information from what I have heard.

Looking at the Youtube demo of this machine it is easy to see why they had the problem they had in New York with the Python.

Here is news guys …. The city (New York)is currently renting the Python for up to three months at a cost of $2,500 per month. After the initial testing phase, the city will assess the benefits of the machine and the DOT will decide whether or not to move forward with the technology.

So why do we not do that? Might be $5 more in PG … but hey, isn’t that the way to go when looking at an expensive piece of equipment, especially one that may require a bit of getting used to?

Besides, the Python is not exactly the only pothole paving machine on the market.

“movepgforward”

I would be happy to have PG back to where it was at one time before all this trouble started, say 1981 … or even 1990 …. and then try to work to the plans we actually had in those days rather than allowing sprawlsville to happen.

So, like the frog climbing out of the well … 3 steps forward … now to pay the piper and slide 2 steps back and try to do things right for the next three steps forward.

A little off topic, but I saw something that speaks to how well(or not) things are thought through before a decision is made at city hall.

New policy this spring to lengthen time between mowing at city parks and fields,this morning I saw a mower trying to mow a field in the west part of the city and after the rain last night the grass is pretty wet and of course long. It made one pass along the outer perimeter and you could hear how much it was struggling despite going VERY slow. Barely made it around once before it gave up and buggered off.

So now we have a field not mowed(and still growing)and a city worker driving the mower around town trying to find somewhere dry enough to mow. Not exactly efficient use of resources!

In the past I have seen these mowers working in a downpour without a problem. Will the parks department now request bigger more powerful mowers to cope with the new conditions? Cows, goats, horses?

I just picked up the phone and called Python. They have two machines in the yard now and rather than sending a machine to a community such as PG, they would be prepared to “help” defray travel costs to see the machine.

Apparently the technology was developed about 20 years ago, they manufactured about 25 machines at the time, the company was sold, the new owners were not too interested in the machines, recently the privious owner(s) bought the company back, spent some time in improving the machine, and now have the new version available to promote.

The individual on the phone was extremely nice and very helpful. I am sure I could have spent more time to pose some additional questions around where were (are) the original machines in use and where are the new models actually in use.

Of course they are working with large markets like New York and New England.

Based on the article in the New York papers, I would be looking for more investment money in the marketing so that capable operators from the manufacturer could be sent to such multimillion population areas to ensure that phot op and technical trials are presented as well as they possibley can.

Then again, the machine likely has some limts and needs to be used within the confines of those limtis.

Excellent observation lonesome sparrow. The thing is, some things have to be tried and perfected through trial an error. If one does not have expert people on staff who have experienced such things before, then tiral and error is the only way it works.

Not sure how much this trial and error will cost us. But if what you say is true (and I think that anyone who has ever mowed a lawn in their life under such conditions will be able to project to exactly what you are saying) it could be that there is nothing to be saved in this venture.

I would not be surprised if those who actually do the mowing suggested that it is a wrong move, but those who manage and have never actually sat on a machine before in different types of weather and grass lengths prevailed.

I call the obvious result of the new policy the failure of applying street smarts.

Hey gus, maybe you could let Bill Gaal use this “phone” thing you speak of to talk to Python.

Any manufacturing company worth its salt has a user list with contact info for people currently using the product they make. Would get better feedback from them rather than company sales pitch.

From looking at the web site and the manufacturing facility for their farm equipment and speaking with a company representative who was extremely pleasant and informative, I think we are faced with a company that likely has no sales or very few sales of the new machine, that has had some problems with the original machines from either a technical or marketing aspect, and has not thought through a well prepared promotion of their product. I am not sure if they can meet a large demand in the immediate future.

From the little I have observed, I would be very cautious in buying this machine. I would be looking at working with them to be part of the pilot system. I do not know whether they have done any of that. I am sure if they had done that, and it was successful, they would have that on their web site with the appropriate endorsements.

So, there is actually an opportunity here for someone to make such a deal with the company, if it has not already been done in a few places, at least. The whole works, from training, right through to the quality of the patches.

http://www.pythonmfg.com/index.html

The concept of the machine is good and it seems to work well, but after watching the video a couple of times the one thing I would question would be the amount of compaction that takes place,a little light in the loafers.

The traffic is expected to provide the compaction. I’m sure I”ve seen a YRB machine that looks very similar to the Python.

30% higher costs for asphalt between PG and the Okanagon? Really? We must have higher land costs? A shortage of gravel? The gas companies are setting the prices??

So we are being gouged and we lack the smarts to address it?

I was in the Okanagan for a week and I never saw any roads as bad as ours. Even the residential streets are good to excellent. What else can I say except that our money is being spent on bull feces. Like dikes in SFG.