We Don't Have The Worst Pot Holes In the Country

By Ben Meisner

While you may be able to make an argument that we haven’t been spending enough on road repairs in this city over the past two decades, or that we haven’t re built enough of our existing roads that have long ago passed their shelf life, the argument that we do less than other cities across Canada doesn’t  wash.

We undertook an in depth look at what other centers across Canada were faced with this year and discovered, to our surprise, that we are right up there in our efforts.

In Barrie Ontario, we were told that the problem is so huge that the city of 130,000 is looking at increasing the amount of money spent in road repairs and re building the existing structure.

In Kamloops to the south, Streets Division Manger, Jim McNeely says the city has purchased a hot box for mix along with a new truck to carry it at a cost of about $200,000 dollars. It is hoped, McNeely said, that instead of repairing some pot holes six or seven times in a day with cold mix that simply washes out of the hole, that the new system will eliminate that problem.

Sudbury Ontario lays claims to having the worse potholes in the country according to the Canadian Automobile Association. Residents say years of not doing anything on the streets have left them in such disrepair that it will require $30 million a year to correct the problem. City officials say they tried to go for a number of years without a tax increase; we are now paying the price.

In Edmonton, that city has 80,000 pot holes to repair and as Brent Pushkarenko told us, that is just for Edmonton proper not the centers such as Sherwood Park. Pushkarenko says in a recent tour of Red Deer and Calgary they are facing the same problem.

In Saskatoon, while spring is just starting to bring the pot holes to the surface, we were told that they are expecting a terrible year. "We have still got several feet of frost in the ground and we have to get by that first".

So where does that leave PG?  Well we have 3 patching cress of two men each, which is close to Sudbury  with a population of 165,000 it has three crews of three working on the problem.

We no doubt left the roads on the back burner while we built facilities that gobbled much of the money up and we are set to pay the price. We need to rebuild and repair a lot of roads in the city, we however should be aware that we are doing as much or more than many cities in the same climate belt in Canada. 

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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