City focuses on increasing lifespan of roads

The City of Saskatoon is nearing the halfway mark of what civic officials call the city’s most ambitious roadway construction season.

As part of a multi-year plan to improve Saskatoon’s decrepit road system, the city is spending $59 million this year and aims to repair 233 lane kilometres of roads. Last year, the city repaired 220 lane kms.

So far, the city has repaired 91 lane kms and completed major rehabilitation projects on Broadway Avenue and the Idylwyld Drive overpass.

“We do have a fair amount of work ahead of us; it’s a fairly large city,” Celene Anger, the city’s director of construction and design, told reporters on Monday.

The city now plans to focus on microsurfacing — applying a coating to prevent moisture from penetrating and to prolong the life of roads. That work is expected to move fast.

The city’s goal this year is 87 lane kms of microsurfacing. More than 139,000 potholes have been repaired so far this year, requiring 2,400 tonnes of asphalt or 240 truckloads.

Anger said the city has received fewer complaints about disruptions during this construction season than in previous years.

Residents should see continual improvements in the city’s streets, despite the impression the roads are not getting better or are actually getting worse, she said.

A Mainstreet Research/Postmedia Network Inc., opinion poll last month suggested only seven per cent of residents thinks the condition of roads is improving, while 39 per cent think the roads are getting worse. Another 42 per cent said they thought the state of the roads was staying the same.

The telephone poll of 803 Saskatoon residents was conducted July 27 and 28 and is considered accurate within 3.46 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Surveys by the city have shown for several years that road repair is residents’ top priority. City council voted to increase property taxes for four years starting in 2014 to address the concern.