After looking at some short-term and long-term options to fix its disintegrating streets, the City of Estevan has decided upon a solution that sits somewhere in the middle.
And it's not going to be cheap for all involved.
Speaking after Monday night's regular council meeting, Mayor Roy Ludwig said the City will do a more extensive repaving job than they had initially discussed on the north leg of Highway 47.
Previously Ludwig said the City was looking at a quick project where they would simply strip off the asphalt and then put down a new layer, which is commonly described as a shave and pave. Instead, the City will go a little deeper and do some work on the actual road base before laying down new asphalt.
"(The shave and pave) would have lasted one to two years, but we should be looking at five to eight years with this job," he said. "We are hoping to schedule it so in five to eight years time we can get ready financially to take care of the undergrounds, which will be our cost, and do the complete Highway 47 north and south."
Ludwig said the decision to do a more extensive job was at the recommendation of their engineer Kiflom Weldeab. It was felt for the amount of money it would cost - roughly $1.4 million - when compared to how long it would last, a shave and pave was not financially viable.
Furthermore, Ludwig said a complete repave did not make sense at this time since the truck bypass around Estevan has not been constructed yet.
"Until we get this heavy traffic out of the City it will continue to deteriorate," he said. "We want to put the big push on to get this bypass built so we can get the heavy traffic out of the City so once we do the road repairs and do them right it will last a long time and not just a few years."
Although this new plan will buy the City a few more years before they undertake a total rebuild, it does come at a significant cost.
Ludwig estimates repaving from the CPR tracks in the centre of Estevan to the north edge of the City will cost roughly $2.5 million.
Fortunately for the City they will not have to pay the whole tab as Ludwig added that they have a verbal agreement with the provincial government to split the cost of the work.
"We'll be fleshing it out in the next few days, but it looks like we will be getting into a 50/50 cost arrangement for Highway 47 north. We are very excited about that. That is the worst of our roads and we are also looking at something down King Street to Hillcrest Drive which is a mess as well. We'll have to shoulder that (cost).
"After that we'll have to look at doing something at Fifth and Sixth Streets, but we'll keep everyone informed as we flesh those out."
While getting the money from the province is obviously good news, the City will still have a $1.25 million expense that it wasn't expecting and hadn't placed in their initial budget.
Ludwig said along with cutbacks in some areas, council will almost certainly be raising the property tax mill rate this year. They are looking into the idea of instituting a separate tax levy that would go towards roadwork over the next few years until they get caught up.
"Unfortunately as everyone knows, we have fallen behind in that area and now it is catch up time," he said. "We are discussing options such as a road levy if you will, or other options at this time, but we are definitely looking at something along those lines."
Ludwig did not say on Monday when he expects the work to begin. However, in previous conversations he said they planned to start as soon as the weather permits.
