If the cup de sac is too tight to resurface, how did they pave it in the first place?

The new contractors for painting and paving are doing terrible work & using subpar materials in the process ….. get rid of them!

I guess political friends may not be the best contractors after all?

I hope someone on Council, or at the City, is thinking the same as me right now… Why are problems with contracted work being brought forward by the public? Is there not someone in charge of these contractors, someone to ensure that the work we are paying for is being done to an acceptable standard? For all the big salaries being paid, the onus should not be upon the public to spot shoddy workmanship. Apparently, someone somewhere is not doing the work that they are required to do.

CITY COUNCIL TAKE NOTE: The public is now needing to hear that you are doing something in regards to this. You are in charge of the money being spent, therefore you need to find accountability for why this keeps going unnoticed until there is public outcry.

Hey watchdog !! Put a cork in it. Your just another 250 blowhard.

Bald Eagle I do agree watch dog where is the quality control.

Are you sure watchdog? Do you know the sequence of events? Sounds like the contractor was already going back before the reporter contacted the city by my read of the article. Please provide some proof to your comment that the problems with the work were brought forth by the public before the city supervisor in charge took notice.

Same wonderful work throughout the whole neighbourhood. I’m on Christopher Cres and it’s the same horrible looking job. I hope they fix it because it looks way worse than it did before.

My road was done last year and I live on a culdesac, they did a great job.

The who knew what and when is moot to me. What I find scary is that a contractor looked at their finished work and said “Yup, we’re done. Good job boys.”

“City staff got the message and visited the site.” Why was there not a City supervisor at the job site overseeing the work as it was being done. This is exactly how contractors get away with performing inferior work in Prince George. Things just don’t get better here!

Never heard of such a thing. Sounds cheap and useless. If it is so thin I can see the graders having no problem wrecking it in the winter.

No kidding Brother Gecko! When hiring a contractor, a plumber, a mechanic, an electrician or some other type of service provider, so of us will ask our neighbours, friends, co-workers, etc. for recommendations or referrals. I think that we do this because we want or expect good value for our hard earned dollars!

I’m not so sure that the City bothers to take any such actions. It seems a shame that the City seems less concerned about getting good value for our hard earned tax dollars than we are!

yep, the work did look sub par, but its getting fixed at the contractors expense, so why all the whinning.

Why the whining? Taxes have gone up every year. The city had to be told in spite of well paid staff. “City staff got the message, and visited the site. They have noted some “deficiencies” in the work, and the contractor will be returning to James Court to make the necessary upgrades.

If you paid someone to do your roof you would at least take a look after they’re done to make sure it’s looks right. This deficiency is so obvious. I’ll give the city credit that instead of trying to B.S. us that they had it under control they are admitting failings and rectifying things. A much better approach than prior years.

I am sure our city does the same when hiring contractors… It gets at least 3 bids on the job.. then I am sure the city goes with the cheapest..

Also I could hear the whinning now if we had a city employee over seeing the job.. ” I saw a city worker do nothing all day but watch the contractors work” I could see a city person doing the occasional driveby to see how the job is going etc.

When you hire a contractor you cant babysit them.. thats not how it works..when we hire contractors we keep in contact with them to see how things are going etc but we expect them to do the job competantly.;

Microsurfacing roads has been around for more than 30 years in the US and Canada. It was invented in Germany in the late 1960s to fill ruts in the Autobahn. It can be placed in several layers to build up the ruts and “feathered” to match the adjacent surface.

Colour matching, however, is another story altogether. Its natural colour is black. It will not fade over time, so it will remain black. So, from an aesthetic point of view, the job needs to be done with some care, including not going over the concrete curb. Also, it required prep work to fill cracks as well as getting rid of weeds (organics).

When mixed with pigment, the final finish can be other than black. It can be used that way to differentiate bike lanes from the remainder of the road, or for cross walks, etc.

Based on decades of application, it will last up to 30 years. It is likely the same product which has been used to fill road cracks in PG.

What we are seeing here is the same as with the recent poor quality of line painting. It appears that no test streets, especially with some complications like cul-de-sacs, were done which would become the standard against which the rest of the work would be measured. Once that is done, the City inspector would not have to hang around all day. However, the contractor should have a quality control supervisor on the job at all time to make sure they would not have to do the work over again.

“why all the whinning”

It is the “social media”. Everyone is being sociable and posting instead of reading the article like a newspaper and talking to yourself because newspapers are not interactive.

What is a Associate Director of Public Works for the City. Oh right they use to be referred as spin doctors. And how many departments in town hall have their own spin doctors? maybe this is why inferior work is let out rather than a quality longer lasting product.
The old saying still bodes true, you get what you pay for, there is no savings in going cheap, never has been never will be.

Nice to see a familiar voice is alive and kicking and not residing at the bottom of Peden Hill…..Generating Urban Sediment;)

The part of the problem is the layout of James Court itself . The cul-de-sac is a tight circle with a centre island, which makes it difficult for machinery to navigate in order to lay down the material. That means some of the work has to be done by hand.

Did they think of going counter clockwise first??That way they could be up against the curb…just saying. :)

Ispy.. I call bullsh@t on the culdesac excuse… Our street was done last year.. has a culdesac with a center island and they did the entire thing with two passes of the equipement… So either the city hired a lousy contractor or they contractor had a bad crew working… The fault blames on the contractor not doing the job correctly..

gopg2015; “It is the “social media”. Everyone is being sociable and posting instead of reading the article like a newspaper and talking to yourself because newspapers are not interactive”. Hahaha, good one, I needed a good laugh this morning. The talking to the newspaper is bad enough but the replies are driving me nuts. Welcome back Gus.

Generating Urban Sediment …. nice one sparrow …;-)

Speaking of the City.. did you know during the water restriction, that they were paying staff double time to drive around trying to catch offenders???? Really ???? What a waste of taxpayers money… and we wonder why our bills from the City keep going up every year

It would appear the spin doctor has no comprehension of hand placed asphalt, it is almost impossible to tell the difference from a screed laid asphalt or hand laid, it’s the proper compaction of hot mix asphalt that must be carried out.The repair of this cul-de-sac will now be carried out by hand work which may be visible as that should have been carried out at the same time that the initial lay over was carried out ” previous to that the spin doctor said “It is a surface repair only and does not repair cracks, failed asphalt or potholes.
Have to wonder, what is it that was being repaired then? Lastly the spin doctor stated “While the hand applied areas don’t look as nice as the that applied by machinery, the surface remains pliable for a few days and traffic will help smooth it over” Realy what keeps it pliable, solar oil?
All seal coats that I have been associated with is a hot mix and rapid compaction is required so not to allow for cool spots, or you end up with a honey comb effect. and no it does not stay pliable for days after compaction once cool it’s hard period.

Getting Under Sophic’s skin…. sorry to go off topic but I couldn’t resist ;)

hindawi.com/journals/isrn/2012/279643

That link is probably as good an explanation as is needed.

“The main benefit achieved from microsurfacing over alternative pavement treatments results from the polymer-modified asphalt emulsion that chemically speeds evaporation of moisture. This enables it to set in less than one hour in most instances, requires no rolling, and allows traffic to return to the roadway quickly.”

“Microsurfacing is generally classified as a preventative maintenance treatment as opposed to a corrective maintenance treatment. Due to this classification by agencies involved in road repair and maintenance, microsurfacing is most often used as a surface treatment to correct rutting, improve surface friction, and extend pavement life by sealing any cracks in the pavement surface”

So, the “spin doctor” may not have read that.

I agree with furtree’s 12:13 pm comment, I would go further and hire a city crew to do the cul-de-sacs all you would need are workers the material and a small steam roller. The contractor can do the straighter connecting back streets.

On another note, I see I am having the desired effect as I am now in detoe44’s mind, I promise not to damage anything while I am in there detoe44. Too late for Hart Guy though, someone (and I wonder who) turned him into a fixated, obsessed, stalking zombie.

Stillsmokin, I wouldn’t have a problem with the City paying staff double time to drive around catching offenders IF, and it’s a really big IF, the staff were actually issuing fines!

This city is too wishy-washy and huggy-feely to offend anybody by actually issuing a ticket!

Any staffer out driving around would be more than able to make up their overtime costs just by the sheer volume of potential tickets, but that is unlikely to happen!

Hmmmm, Sophie, you keep mentioning me! What’s up with that?

Hahaha, no Sophic you’re not in or on my mind, probably the last place you would want to be. I was just looking for an acronym for Gus. Seeing as how he always trumped you when you were People First & Being Human, I couldn’t resist. Nice try though.

gopg2015 most interesting your link, when you read about micro-surfacing , could you tell me what comes to your mind. From my understanding polymer-modified asphalt emulsion is a product being of a relative to plastic ,in other words a portion or more being derived from or being of an oil based product.
The first time I heard of polymer was from a min.of hwys. rep. It was in regards to the replacing of worn out pedestrian crossing lines he said they would be replaced with a polymer, which I was not familiar with, he said it was like plastic. The first winter a 2-3 foot chunk of it disappeared due to a grader or snow plow truck, as well when you drove over these polymer lines you felt them as they looked to be I/4′ thick.

Ah yes I remember reading that one head to head exchange between Gus and People#1, as I recall Gus dumped a massive amount on information on People#1 in one comment, and called it a debate… kind of like what I am about to do here:

Microsurfacing is a road maintenance tool that involves laying a mixture of dense-graded aggregate, asphalt emulsion (about 7% by weight), water, polymer additive (about 3% by weight), and mineral fillers (about 1% of weight of total dry mix) to correct or prevent certain deficiencies in pavement conditions [1]. In the same category of pavement treatments as seal coating and thin hot mix asphalt (HMA) overlays, microsurfacing treatments cover the entire width of the roadway to which they are applied [2]. The treatment may be as thin as 3/8 inch (9.5 mm), or it can fill wheel ruts up to 2 inches (50.8 mm) deep using multiple passes.

Because of the similar ingredients used in microsurfacing as in slurry seals, microsurfacing is sometimes referred to as a “polymer-modified slurry seal.” The difference, however, is slurry seals cure through a thermal process while microsurfacing uses a chemically controlled curing process [3]. Since the use of a polymer-modified binder results in more stability, microsurfacing can be placed in multistone thicknesses, unlike slurry seals. Due to this thickness, more powerful mixers are needed than those required for slurry seals. In order to provide a uniform flow of the mixture into the spreader box, a twin-shafted paddle or spiral auger is needed [4]. Microsurfacing should not be applied if either the pavement or air temperature is below 50°F (10°C) nor if there is a possibility of the treatment freezing within 24 hours of placement [3]. Microsurfacing is generally classified as a preventative maintenance treatment as opposed to a corrective maintenance treatment [5]. Due to this classification by agencies involved in road repair and maintenance, microsurfacing is most often used as a surface treatment to correct rutting, improve surface friction, and extend pavement life by sealing any cracks in the pavement surface [6].

Developed in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s, microsurfacing was pioneered as a way to apply a conventional slurry in thick enough layers to fill deep wheel ruts, but in narrow enough courses so that the expensive road striping lines on the autobahns would not be destroyed (“what is microsurfacing,” n.d.). Introduced to the United states in 1980 after Dr. Frederick Raschig presented his new slurry system, Ralumac, at the International Slurry Surfacing Association (ISSA) convention, microsurfacing is now used throughout Europe, the US, and Australia and is making inroads into many other areas [4, 7]. The main benefit achieved from microsurfacing over alternative pavement treatments results from the polymer-modified asphalt emulsion that chemically speeds evaporation of moisture. This enables it to set in less than one hour in most instances, requires no rolling, and allows traffic to return to the roadway quickly.

“requires no rolling”

So now that you read my link and wrote the entire thing on here because you feel no one else has the ability to do the same on here, do you still maintain what you wrote before – “I would go further and hire a city crew to do the cul-de-sacs all you would need are workers the material and a small steam roller.”???

Perhaps I enlightened you a bit and cautioned you to not make a decision until you have done some research.

Oh … can you maybe find a way to blame this on Chrissy and/or Stephen?

“While the hand applied areas don’t look as nice as the that applied by machinery, the surface remains pliable for a few days and traffic will help smooth it over.”

If traffic can help smooth it over, why not use a small non-steamed roller gopg2015, cul-de-sacs in particular do not get the traffic volume that neighborhood through streets do.

As for blaming Christy, she is finally starting to see things my way regarding the link between increased forest fires and global warming, Harper is a bit more thick headed, so I might have to throw him under my bus a few more times between now and October 19th. ;-)

That quote re the hand applied areas is not a direct quote from Layte-Liston. I assume it is a paraphrased representation to the reporter by Layte-Liston and is, however, likely accurate.

So, given that, Layte-Liston is not an engineer nor an engineering technologist. Her background is in environmental matters. She is in an acting position at the moment and, if I would be in her position I would bring my best road engineer/technologist with me or actually give her/him the authority to speak on this matter without me.

Steam rollers should never be uses from what I have read. If any, it should be pneumatic (tire) rollers and they are typically used in two instances.

1- in the case of wheel ruts being filled which require multiple layers and the contractor does not want to wait for each layer to set before applying the next.

2- if the mix contains a high aggregate content such as is typical on our highways to reduce the amount of aggregate loss.

Neither of those is indicated here from what I can tell.

I have found no negative side to rolling always assuming that it is not done too early.

The other thing, the experts should be the contractors in this case, not the City. What then becomes important is hiring a contractor with long time and best practices/quality credentials from past jobs.