As most people here know it is really bad in some places. It surprises me how bad it is all over. Most sections of the city have big problems.

Maybe now that the facilities expansion is 'done' they can get working on the streets.

Yes Ben you are right. Back then the city had study done and people wanted "leisure services" not knowing the repercusions of this decision. The mayor wanted a legacy and found a way to have it accomplished. What about this Terasen Gas deal. Wasn't this supposed to bring LOTS of money to the city and the paving would be done everywhere? I used to see signs everywhere this project was fininced by the Terasen Gas deal. WHERE IS ALL THAT MONEY NOW? How about all the money that the city receives from ticket revenue from the RCMP? How about all the money the city receives from the casino? 10 years ago the city wanted to spend $400,000 dollars on computers for the police cars and the police said the member does not have to go to the office to do paperwork all can be done in the car. This would be so good for everyone. Now why do the police need a new building when all the members are in there cars being more effective in policing? Ben I hope you can look into this, the city seems to listen to you.

City crews should start paving as soon as possible in the spring, and not stop until freeze up. It should not be contracted out, and we should be using our own equipment. There is no shortage of asphalt or gravel, a lot of re-paving could get done in 4 or 5 months. Also don't just pave a couple hundred feet of road and leave the rest like it is done now. If you're going to pave it, pave it right, or go back to gravel rds at least we can smooth them out.

On the bright side...... the pothole situation shouldn't be too bad downtown as there so little traffic down there! lol
Perhaps the downtown revitalization money would be MUCH BETTER spent on "revitalizing" all of town (potholes) not just building gardens downtown.

I have family visiting from the lower mainland and they are appalled at the quality of our roads. A 4x4 or SUV used to be a luxury, but since has become a necessity.

I've watched potholes get filled over and over again. Whatever it is the paving crews are doing, it's not working.

It is not just the lack of maintenance. It is how that maintenance is done. When the "patch" a pot hole, that is only a temporary fix. On Austin road near Timmie's, there is a 10 meter stretch that is getting pounded hard. When there is a temperature change, that piece falls apart again and they come and patch it. Hopefully this spring when it warms enough they do the right thing and repave that stretch from the corner of Dagg to the highway.

In any case, it is also the way these roads are constructed. Main arteries should be built with huge ballast, then smaller and finer ballast in many layers until the road bed elevation is reached below a layer of 6 inch concrete then pavement. The pavement should not be one continuous piece. There needs to be built in expansion/contraction joints every so often. Sort of like the Europeans do it. It will cost a lot more to build, but a lot less to maintain. It is rarely the initial cost that gets you, it is the ongoing and repeated maintenance of that object that ends up costing the most.

The way they do most roads is they scrap of the duff and start pouring on the gravel. What kind of planning and engineering is that? They save a lot on the up front cost, then skimp on the maintenance. The cost will be there no matter what. Pay lots now, or pay a lot more later over time. Today's dollar is cheaper than tomorrow's dollar.

I think we need a study to see if potholes are a problem and what can be done about them.

re:acopolympics

I totally agree. Let's form a committee, then develope a pot hole task force, apply for funds to finance a study, and put it out to tender.

That way, and after about 7 months, we can find out that the amount of potholes does not exceed an amount expected for a city of compariable size located in the north.

THis way we'll be out MANY THOUSANDS of dollars of OUR own taxpayer dollars only to make it up next year with yet another TAX HIKE!

And even this day the current Mayor is gazing at the stars but cant see the potholes in our streets when he tells us that plans for our great city are being made to the year 2035. Can you believe it and they cant fix the decaying infrastructure.

Yes and we are looking at borrowing more money for a cop shop, Boundary Road a preforming arts center, bio-energy and the list goes on and on. But when you look at the picture is it really the fault of City council or the mandarins at city hall that have to build an empire and make work projects. What we need to do first is clean out the dreamers at City Hall.
Cheers

The city of Prince George has a pothole report line on their website. I urge everyone to use it. Squeaky wheel...squeaky wheel...

Years ago there was a terrible pot hole on the my way to work, no matter what they did it just got larger. One day the City crew put bricks in the pot hole and paved over it. Pot hole GONE! Next summer they dug up the bricks and did it the usual way and the pot hole was back forever. When the crew was asked why, they said that the idea was from a Northern Conference and it is used in Norway, etc. but that it is not used in Canada so they had to remove it even though the bricks worked.

You need to give the city credit in their bidding for the Canada Winter Games rather than the Summer Games. There is a method to their madness. With winter comes the snow and the pot holes are not as visible. If PG bid for the Canada Summer Games it would certainly showcase the deplorable conditions of the roads.
Rogers should initiate a study. Fix the roads, no cop shop, no PAC, no more land purchases downtown.

grayglen: that is the kind of thing I am talking about in my post.

The "standards" used for road construction and repair is about saving immediate dollars at the cost of durability.

They just simply do not want to build it right in the first place. They would rather skimp now so they can spread out the actual costs over the years in maintenance. Yet if they built it right from the start, they would not have to do so much and so frequent remediation.

This is the result of pandering to big business. This is not about public safety or economic conservation.

As long as folks stay here I don't see building in the past a problem. However renting has been difficult. I might not stay here for that reason alone. I won't want to buy. I will have land in Ontario could see buy here in PG. But PG sucks socially. Being here nine years in Aug. There isn't much here for me. Still back words living in Prince George. To many trucks, cars in a city that you can get around much better cycling. It fails in terms of that alone. We should be tapping into solar power which we are not. To me unless you can plug it in a motor is an insult to society. We are not growing hemp. We need people more engaged or nothing will change. Need to get media on that to shame folks for living so poorly .

Junco, if we were to report to the
pot hole hotline that there are pot holes everywhere you drive in PG, would that be too non specific? None of us has time to document all of the severe pot holes we encounter on a short drive through this beautiful city. Loki that road construction method you describe sounds okay if you remember to include the epoxy coated re-bar so the concrete does not crack and heave, but can you imagine the cost to dig up then repair that kind of road to repair or improve buried utilities? Astronomical. One basic pricipal we all seem to agree upon is that the road base should be better designed for our climate, definitely a higher up front cost, bu I believe that higher standards would pay off in the long run.
metalman.

4x4's and SUV's are now a NECESSITY? Wow, someone should tell the thousands of people driving cars in town as it doesn't seem like they were informed of that new requirement, LOL.

I've come to the simple conclusion that it doesn't matter how good our roads are, people will complain about them. I've also arrived at the conclusion that at least 50% of the people who habitually complain about roads have nothing else going on in their life to focus on, hence their pre-occupation with the manner in which asphalt degrades.

As for Ben's assertion that the roads have gone downhill because the City chose to spend money on other things, there likely is some element of truth to that. The rather obvious follow-up question to that assertion is whether the the tradeoff was worth it . . .

Given a choice between the current state of our roads and having the facilities we do now OR having much improved roads and only the 4 seasons pool, PG Coliseum, no Civic Centre, etc., I'll take the former in a heart beat thank you very much. Sure roads are important, but I've yet to hear of a city plan their future growth around having the best pothole repair in the country. I've also yet to meet anyone who has chosen to live in a particular city because of their roads. Truth be told, for the people I know it doesn't even come up as a discussion point. They are more concerned with whether there are things to do in the city, whether their kids will have things to do, entertainment options, clean air, low crime, etc. Roads are WAY down on the list.

Meant to add, I wonder how much impact there is in regards to WHAT we drive? 10 years ago a 1/2 ton was the "normal" truck to see around town (and a much smaller 1/2 than today's as well) and people cares much more often. Now, a 1 ton is the "normal" truck and SUV's are replacing cars. Surely those thousands of extra pounds pounding the roads and slamming into exisiting potholes has an ever increasing impact on the condition of those same roads.

Perhaps we need to build the roads to higher standards to take into account the vehicles being used on them as compared to years past (and that will come with higher costs) and/or accept the fact that the roads won't be as good as what they were in the past just because of the vehicles that are driving on them on a daily basis.

Oops should have said:

"10 years ago a 1/2 ton was the "normal" truck to see around town (and a much smaller 1/2 than today's as well) and people drove cars much more often"

"4x4's and SUV's are now a NECESSITY? Wow, someone should tell the thousands of people driving cars in town as it doesn't seem like they were informed of that new requirement, LOL."

People have got to start taking me less literally. As far as cars vs. trucks, it's not a revelation that the heavier suspension systems in SUVs and trucks are more capable to handle our 'challenging' road conditions.

I think that industrial traffic (semis and large cargo trucks) do a number on our roads. Not so sure about SUV's and the like, but I can't prove one way or the other.

You're probably one of the few people in town that doesn't seem to think our roads are all that bad. As someone who drives around quite a bit, I can tell you that they are.

Yes, people will always complain, but it seems that just about everyone I run into from out of town makes some sort of unsolicited comment about the roads. That speaks volumes in itself.

Agree 100% with NMG .... other cities have been able to do both ... build infrastructure for social activities as well as build infrasturcture for transportation .....

That being said, MOST of Canada as well as the USA is not able to maintain its infrastructure to the same level as some European countries. They simply live for the quarterly report still, not the 5, 10 15 + year reports.

It is part of the throw away society stigma we still have.

You know, we have this Smart Growth stuff. There was not one single moment in that multi-month event that dealt with "work with what you have". There was far too much "get rid of what you have and replace it with today's fads".

destroy .... build ... destroy .... build

no wonder we have no money to maintain, reuse, recycle .....

And remember .... the former increases our GDP .... the latter does not .....

So we do not even have a good measuring tool to conserve and maintain ...... we have a great measuring tool to destroy and rebuild ....

Naysayers listen up. The pothole(s) that I reported to the pothole hot line on wed were repaired today (thurs)
I reported a few major ones in my area and all were filled this afternoon.

The POTHOLES are horrible. Every road in this dump is in disrepair, if it wasn't paved in the last year. Even roads that were paved two years ago, are already starting to show signs of, I hate to say it, "POT F@#$!*% HOLES" Does anybody get it yet. I as a taxi driver, see more roads in this city than most people. The roads in this dump are SHOT, do any of you get it yet?

No more excuses. No more wasteful spending. No RCMP BUILDING, NO PERFORMING ARTS CENTER. NO EXTRA SPENDING, until our infrastructure is fixed.

It is called priorities DANNY BOY. This is OUR money you are spending, not yours. What don't you understand about that. THE GOVERNMENTS at all levels do not have any money. It belongs to the tax payers.....

I'll end now, because I am very angry, and I may start threatening "POLITICIANS" as the 70 year old farmer on the prairies did.

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh, what a pathetic lot we are