Road Rehab Once Again Centre of Council’s Attention
Monday, June 25, 2012 @ 7:01 PM
Prince George ,B.C.- The issue of road rehabilitation presented itself in several different items on the Prince George City Council agenda this evening.
First, it was in the form of resolutions to the Union of B.C. Municipalities. Although the union of B.C. Municipalities has received similar resolutions in the past, Council is supporting giving it another shot, with two resolutions, one for a share of the Provincial gas tax, the other for a cut of the federal tax:
The first, is a result of a notice of motion from Councillor Brian Skakun and calls for the UBCM to :
“lobby the Government of British Columbia to provide a portion of the provincial gas tax to local governments on the same basis as the federal gas tax, to fund road rehabilitation.”
The second comes from Councillor Dave Wilbur and it calls for the UBCM to:
“work with its federal and provincial partners to amend the Federal Gas Tax Program agreement, specifically to expand the eligibility criteria to include maintenance and replacement of roadways at a sustainable level and to a standard that restores public safety for first responders and the travelling public.”
Councillor Wilbur says the poor road conditions have become major safety issues as there is a danger to other vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians as drivers “zig-zag” to avoid hitting pot holes.
Meantime, Mayor Green has written a letter to Provincial Minister of Finance Kevin Falcon, asking for details on “what steps the City of Prince George would need to take, to be able to acquire the ability to share in the fuel tax revenue currently collected under the Motor Fuel Tax Act, by British Columbia, and steps for enabling authority to enact on behalf of the City, a local fuel tax.”
And Staff reported to Council that they are producing a report that won’t be complete in time for this year’s paving program, but will examine the following:
- the development of a gravel source suitable for asphalt manufacture. This investigation is to include acquiring of land, capital budget and zoning needs.
- creating a business model for the City to operate its own portable asphalt plant. This includes capital and operating costs as well as consideration of regulatory requirements.
- Seek a final decision from the provincial Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure on combining the respective asphalt tenders.
- include a review of the Python 5000 pot hole patching machine
Staff expect that report will be ready sometime around the end of September.
Comments
For the last couple of weeks, I have seen the private street line painting contractor out and about measuring and marking the lanes for painting. I don’t understand why the city would waste the money on paint when lane placement is now determined by “the best line through the tire and suspension damaging craters”.
Line painting does nothing but to point out just how far on must travel into the other lane to miss a hole that wants to rip off your entire tire and wheel. At least use the saved money from the useless line painting to fill in a few more pavement canyons out there awaiting someone who can not avoid all the holes.
“the development of a gravel source suitable for asphalt manufacture. This investigation is to include acquiring of land, capital budget and zoning needs.”
Dredge the confluence of the nechako and fraser .
two birds,one stone
Will the report on acquiring an asphalt plant include picking up the phone and getting price and availability on product in the off season. I imagine the reasoning for getting the plant so that they can hot patch in late winter months as conditions permit(in conjunction with Python or similar machine).
A cost/benefit analysis would find if spending money to get the plant, land , employee costs, etc would be a net gain as opposed to paying a higher price from Columbia or Pittman. Plant maintenance costs and any costs of borrowed money should also be factored in.
The gravel would be essentially free
so it comes down to the cost of the asphalt from the refinery, labour and payments on the capital borrowed for equipment.
Sounds good if the city can obtain enough capital to keep the plant running all summer. Its not like there is a shortage of work to do in this town. If they cannot secure enough budget, this concept will get ugly and not cost effective.
Pavers have a monopoly, and always have. This is a very good step to reducing the cost of paving per km of apshalt.
talsnic
With the batch plant being a small portable one, I doubt it would be used for paving projects but only to provide a hot mix for patching.Cold patches only last long enough for the crew to get around the corner. Plus the city does not own the equipment to lay and pack pavement for big projects….million or two more required if they want to go there!
That being said, it would not really provide any serious competition to the duopoly of paving companies. What has to be determined if there are any savings to be had by the city having and maintaining it’s own plant.
Will the employees that run it come from existing staff or will they add some more people with a no lay off clause in their contract?
I think the City should also be lobbying UBCM to have the Province change the Motor Vehicle Act so that unpaid municipal fines must be paid prior to renewing vehicle insurance or a driver’s license.
The City is presently writing off $100,000+ per year in unpaid parking fines because they have no economical way to collect outstanding fines.
So how many millions are they looking at to establish all of this? Why don’t they they just GET THE JOB DONE with the resources they have???
And now they are saying that they are only going to patch about half of the potholes. When will they patch the other half, next year, when they are huge craters???
What really gets my goat is the patching crew doing a couple of patches here, then moving a half mile to do a couple more over there. Why can’t they have one crew just going up one street and down the next doing all of them in a systematic way? Somebody directing the work, really needs to be replaced!
By doing some patching all around the City, gives the impression that something is being done in every area.
Everyone gets a little bit, nobody gets a lot.
Tailing ponds full of crap in Ft. Mac suitable for mixing in with asphalt recipe? Free? Just add transportation costs? Must look into it one day.
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