The early onset of spring is becoming both a good news and bad news situation for the City of Estevan.
On the positive side, with the temperature expected to climb as high as 19 degrees this week, according to Environment Canada, City crews and contractors should be able to get a head start on work they normally might not get to until April or later.
However that positive also produces a negative as the warm weather has already exposed the state of the roads in some areas of the city and begun frustrating motorists earlier than usual.
City manager Jim Puffalt, who is also the acting public works manager since the departure of Mark Sture, said although the temperatures have been climbing, construction crews will have to wait until the frost is out of the ground, but they are hopeful of getting a head start on major projects.
"We can't really do a whole lot until the frost comes out," Puffalt said. "If we can go sooner, the sooner the better because last year was a pretty shortened construction season."
Once the weather allows for work to begin, the focus will be the stretch of Souris Avenue that runs from King Street to Seventh Street. Because of the wet summer, crews from Glen Peterson Construction got a late start on the watermain replacement project and were unable to get the road paved before winter arrived.
Although the company has been maintaining the road, the abnormally warm winter has led to a rough driving surface. Things especially got out of hand over the weekend as the temperatures rose into the teens.
"That road was checked on Thursday and things just went crazy after two days of warm weather," Puffalt said. "We are going to have to keep somebody on it regularly now. The contractor is looking after that road so we will have to work together to make sure that we get out there as much as possible and if it's not in good shape we put up some barricades. With conditions like this, if you can't maintain it, maybe the next step is to block off the areas that are the worst. But that is the number one project to go this spring."
Another trouble area is 13th Avenue from the train tracks to north of the city. However, unlike Souris Avenue, the future plans for the road are up in the air. The City has reached a cost-sharing agreement with the provincial government to repave the area in question but is not sure if that work will be included in the 2012 budget, which will be announced later this month, or the 2013 budget.
That uncertainty may create somewhat of a conundrum for the City who will have to decide what resources to dedicate to upkeep with such a massive rebuild just around the corner.
"We have to still try and maintain the driving surface the best we can," Pufalt said. "We will keep putting cold mix in and fill some of the potholes like we have been doing the past couple of weeks. Hopefully by the time hot mix is available, we will have a better idea as to how much work needs to be done, but we can't just let it go because it will get so bad that you can't even drive on it anymore."
Puffalt said the City has not been given any indication from the province as to whether the project, which would also include the replacement of watermains and other underground utilities, will be included in either the 2012 or 2013 budget. However the province has made it known this could be a tighter budget than others in recent years, a fact that could spell trouble for the project beginning in 2012.
