BONE-RATTLING RIDE
Worst roads not on replacement list
When Tenille Bryan was a kid, her friends said she lived on the fun road — “because it was so bumpy,” she said.
Now 20, Bryan doesn’t find Cowan Crescent so fun anymore. Last year, she broke a tie rod on her car because of the numerous ruts and potholes.
It’s been like this for as long as she can remember. When it gets wet, a pond forms just in front of her home. The water covers the width of the road for a length of about four houses. It’s only one part of an interconnected lake system that takes shape from one end of the street to the other.
“They always try repairing it, but it just ends up being worse,” she said.
Bryan is one of many Hillsdale residents frustrated by the slow pace of replacement for the city’s worst roads. Ward 1, which includes Hillsdale and Whitmore Park, has the most heavily damaged roads in Regina. According to the city, 48 per cent of its residential streets are in poor condition.
For years, Ward 1 Coun. Barbara Young has called for something to be done.
“Clearly, we need to invest in these poor roads,” she said. “We can’t wait 20 years to have these roads fixed.”
Progress is slow. City hall has just released its list of residential roads due for total replacement in 2018, which the public works and infrastructure committee passed at its meeting Thursday. City council will vote on the plan at its April 30 meeting.
There are only seven roads set for full replacement, including three in Ward 1. Ward 7, which has the second-worst roads in Regina, will also see three projects.
Yet 44 roads will see rehabilitation or overlay this year, as part of the city ’s residential roads replacement program. Most are in more fortunate parts of the city, from a vehicular perspective.
The program has pumped $31 million into 70 kilometres of roadwork since 2014, but only 25 per cent of its resources go to poor roads like Cowan Crescent.
Brian Black, vice-president of the Whitmore Park Community Association, said residents in his area would prefer to see work on the worst roads sooner. He said the neighbourhood has “fallen far behind.”
“I’ve lived in this community for a good number of decades and I haven’t seen anything like this,” he said. “Our roads are even in worse shape now.”
Part of the problem is frequent water main breaks. But Black said he doesn’t agree with the priority system.
“I think the people in Whitmore Park have put up with a lot for a long period of time,” he said. “They really need to focus on those roads because they are in such terrible shape. People’s vehicles get damaged by the various potholes.”
But the city administration said there’s a good reason for the way the system is laid out. In their report to the public works and infrastructure committee, staff said a strategy of prevention is more cost-effective than throwing everything at the worst offenders. The point is to ensure better roads never decay into another Cowan Crescent, which will cost far more to replace.
Young agreed — but she’d like to see more money for replacement, over and above what the renewal program provides. In 2016, she proposed a motion to that effect, and is waiting for administration to come back with a report this summer.
“There has to be a new investment in the area for poor roads, and that’s what I’m hoping we’ll see in the next couple months,” she said.
This year, the city will spend $14.2 million through the renewal program — $2.5 million more than last year. But rising construction costs mean crews will work less pavement for more money. Under the administration’s proposal, they’ll only replace 1.7 kilometres of poor road in 2018.
Cowan Crescent will not be part of that. Neither will Martin Street, also on Young ’s list of the most neglected pavement in her ward.
Dick Weist said he has lived there for 60-odd years. The view from his driveway isn’t as sodden as Bryan’s — it’s more of a rolling, hilly terrain — but it’s just as hard on passing vehicles.
“It’s very rough,” Weist said. “If you have a small vehicle, you’re in trouble, because you’ll hit the pavement on those bumps.”
Weist blamed the sorry state of his road on decades of neglect, going back several councils and mayors. Even with all the millions in renewed investment, it hasn’t been enough to fill the backlog.
Like Bryan, he’ll have to keep waiting.
“You live with it,” he said, “but you hope that one day we’ll get a replacement.”
Clearly, we need to invest in these poor roads … We can’t wait 20 years to have these roads fixed.