It's a process everyone is looking forward to.
Although paving crews of United Paving were scheduled to be in Humboldt the first week of August, they have been delayed.
"There has been a bit of a delay from some other projects so we are probably going to see him by (August 13)," said Malcolm Eaton, mayor of Humboldt. "That's a result of some of the delays they have had around the province on other projects due to weather."
The delay, Eaton explained, is not a big problem, as it will give City Asphalt and Paving, who are working on curb and gutter cement work and the City crews more time to finish their projects.
"The cement curb people have been here and are still here," said Eaton. "They are finishing up all of their projects, which has to happen before the pavers start."
Once the paving crews are here, there is a lot of road work that needs to be done.
"There will be a couple of different things going on at the same time," said Eaton. "There will be a lot of patching work and there will be some major blocks of paving going in."
One of the major parts of this year's paving project will be deep patching.
"There is a lot of patching work - what we call deep patching which is some pretty major patching work - throughout the city," said Eaton. "There are a lot of spots in the city that we have had to dig up for water line repairs and things like that are going to be looked at this year."
Deep patching is a completely different type of work than what the City's pothole patcher can do.
Eaton explained when doing deep patching, the crews have to dig out a whole section of road and replace it.
"In many cases they have to do work on the base underneath," said Eaton. "Sometimes, the reason they are doing it in the first place is because the base underneath the pavement has deteriorated or isn't of a standard that allows the pavement to last."
There are a lot of areas around the city that will need to receive this treatment, said Eaton.
"Then there are several blocks where we are rebuilding the road once again because the street was dug up for water line repairs," said Eaton.
Along with replacing some roads, there will also be new pavement put in a subdivision.
"The other thing that is a pretty big part of the project this year is redoing the Hwy. 5 and Hwy. 20 intersection," said Eaton. "They are going to be stripping that down and putting new pavement."
The City's Public Works crews have been out this summer with the pothole patcher.
"We are starting to see the benefits of that in the community," said Eaton. "It's a pothole patcher, it's not a pavement system, but they are doing a whole number of areas in the city and I think they are getting quite good. It is making quite a difference but it doesn't replace the kind of major patching that the paving crews need to do when there is a major breakdown in the pavement."
On roads that cannot be paved this year due to budget constraints, the City has been working on making the roads more bearable, using a calcium carbonate and DL10 treatment to keep the dust down and help with road conditions.
"There are some major arteries we do the DL10 process on," said Eaton. "It's not pavement and we don't pretend it is, but in the short term, it is an economical way of improving the road condition."
The process is good because if binds the material of the road together and the City doesn't have to grade it as much, so it is a temporary measure to try to improve roadways that aren't paved.
The cost of all the paving and patching this year will be over $1 million, said Eaton
"We are making progress," said Eaton. "We'd like to make more progress and do a lot more but, so far, that is what is on the agenda for this year."
