City beefs up asphalt testing
The city’s public works department has been on a mission to improve its pothole repair program after a stinging audit last fall.
After the auditor general discovered the city might have been using substandard asphalt, the city cancelled a contract for the supply of hot-mix asphalt used in the summer, according to a staff memo sent to council on Friday.
The memo updated politicians on steps taken by the city after the audit.
Suppliers received letters of noncompliance from the city, which has since brought public works and infrastructure services together to establish a new asphalt-testing process. It’s expected that a new summer asphalt contract will be awarded in May.
The auditor general’s office, which tabled the audit last November, found asphalt samples that fell below the city’s contracted standards, calling into question the durability of the material used to fill potholes.
The city’s roads branch also found a substandard asphalt sample in its winter maintenance program, prompting the city to re-tender that contract.
The public works department is now using both cold-patch and hot-mix material in the winter and not filling potholes on days when snow covers the roadways.
The city has also been testing a special pothole-repair machine, the Python 5000. The trial will wrap up at the end of the month. The machine, which has been used in at least one other city, mechanically repairs potholes and the operator doesn’t have to get out of the cab.
Where the auditor general found the city was lax in ensuring suppliers’ scales were properly calibrated, the city is ensuring suppliers are held responsible for the accuracy of their weighing devices.
The city has removed a warranty provision for pothole repairs, which should satisfy the auditor general, who discovered the city wasn’t following up on the warranty commitments because hundreds of thousands of potholes were being filled each year. The auditor’s suspicion was that suppliers were embedding the warranties into their prices so the city wasn’t getting value if it couldn’t actually check pothole repairs.
Work continues to find the best solutions to fill potholes and maintain the fixes.
The Transportation Association of Canada is leading a project to develop best practices for pothole repairs. The City of Ottawa will be involved in the work alongside other municipalities, council was told.