Fewer patches of bad pavement?

Prince George  B.C. – It’s  been a long  road  since  a survey of  BCAA members in 2011,  marked Prince George  as  having the worst road in all of B.C.   That was the year, Ospika Boulevard topped  the list of  worst roads in the province because of broken  pavement.

The following year,  four roads  in Prince George made the top ten worst in the Province,   with Domano Boulevard  being ranked  second (just behind  Westside Road in Kelowna) Tabor Boulevard came in third, Massey Drive was  number 6 and 15th Avenue was  #7.

Since then, the City of Prince George has  spent a lot of money  on road rehab.  Last year, $7 million  dollars  went towards  fixing  pavement with 66 lane kilometres  upgraded.  The investments  seem to be paying off with  the number of pothole repairs  from January to late March showing a steep  decline compared to  previous years.

From  January 1st to March 21st this year,  there had been  1530 potholes  filled.  That is just a fraction of the number  filled  during the same time period in each of the previous two years:

-4981   potholes filled in  same  period in 2016

-7133   potholes filled in same period in 2015

Mick Jones, the City’s Supervisor of Road Operations  says the  weather has played a factor in the decline in needed pothole repairs,  saying there  has been less rain, and fewer freeze- thaw  incidents.

Mayor Lyn Hall agrees with that,  but  adds  the  budget commitment  has also been a factor “The money we’ve been  putting into roads in the last three or four years has made a big difference.”

In 2012,  the City had  budgeted  $3.5 million dollars.   That amount was boosted to $5.18 million in 2013,  and  then increased again in 2014  to $7million as  the gas tax revenue was added to the roads budget.

In the past three years alone, the City has spent $21 million on  road rehab  “It was an opportunity for us to play catch-up, it was an opportunity for us to put more dollars into maintenance  in the fall and  particularly in the spring” says Mayor Lyn Hall.    He adds that maintenance has been a  key factor “The maintenance piece was huge for us  to start seeing some benefits from it.  When you  put that kind of money into it,  you hope  you won’t see as much   work that  has to be done year to year.”

He says the new $225,000 Bagela Asphalt Recycler will  allow  earlier maintenance  to be done before the asphalt plants are up and running,  which  is usually around mid May.  The recycler is also expected to  make those pothole patches last  longer.

This year,  the City is spending  less on  road rehab,  $5 million instead of the  $7 million spent  annually  in recent years.   The  $2 million dollar difference  has been split between Parks ($1 million)  and  sidewalks.   $400 thousand will be spent on new sidewalks, and $600 thousand for  sidewalk  upgrades.  Mayor Hall  says he wants to review that road rehab  budget reduction  during the next  budget cycle   “For me, this  was a one year shot.  You take  two million  off roads and put  a million into  parks and a million into  sidewalks.  I am confident we   are going to  be ok, but I want to take a look at it, next budget cycle  just to be sure and hear from our staff about the roads  and what it meant to drop it ( the budget) to five.”