MOOSE JAW — Coun. Dawn Luhning is concerned about two recent road repair projects after contractors left the worksites in a messy state, while she wants to see more oversight of future initiatives.
During city council’s Aug. 25 meeting, Luhning said contractors paved Ninth Avenue Northwest from Thatcher Drive to Highway 1. However, quality control was lacking since the workers left “quite the mess of tar” that motorists dragged onto Thatcher Drive and into West Park.
She then asked how often that happens, where the quality control is, and whether anyone cleaned up the excess asphalt.
Bevan Harlton, director of operations, said the department’s operations manager noticed additional asphalt on the westbound lane of Thatcher Drive and informed the contractor that it needed to clean up that material.
At its own expense, the contractor swept that street to see if the hot asphalt would come off, but very little did, he continued. So the contractor is now looking at other options for scraping the remaining material.
With quality control and project management, the city has a “very good construction management team” that handles infrastructure renewal and road renewal well, added Harlton. Moreover, it receives daily construction reports, materials testing updates and equipment check reports.
A second question Luhning had focused on 13th Avenue Northwest, which the city just repaved. A resident pointed out to her that the city ripped up the corners of sidewalks and left behind pylons. She wondered why the city ripped up sidewalks after paving streets instead of before.
Harlton explained that the drainage on that street is down the centre, so the manholes act as catch basins to shed water. Moreover, all the roads in that area that connect to 13th Avenue Northwest have centre drainage as well.
The city can either leave the storm infrastructure in place to collect water in the middle of the road or shift all the pipes to the sides and collect water from the gutters, which is the typical process, he said.
The operations department decided to mill the existing road — remove a layer — and lower the catch basins so the drainage continued to occur down the centre, Harlton said. That action cost $200,000, whereas it would cost $2 million to fully rebuild the road and address the stormwater and sewer infrastructure.
The operations director pointed out that his department’s budget for paved roads this year is roughly $3 million, so it would have used most of that to completely change the drainage system on 13th Avenue Northwest.
Meanwhile, while milling and paving the road, contractor Cypress Paving found that there was a low spot on that street, so after the first lift of asphalt, it returned and cut out a patch near a corner, Harlton added. The contractor paid for this expense since the work was still under warranty.
Luhning’s final concern was about the eastbound and westbound traffic lights at the intersection of Main Street and Athabasca Street. She alleged that the green lights last for roughly five seconds before quickly changing to yellow and red, which means only a few motorists make it through.
She then wondered if city hall could change that.
Harlton replied that his department would review that concern.
Meanwhile, Coun. Heather Eby said that because of the construction on South Hill, she took a new route home and drove on the 100 block of Grandview Street Southwest. She noted that there is a guardrail on that street because of slumping issues, but shrubs have grown wildly around it.
She then wondered whether it was the city’s responsibility to trim that hedge.
Derek Blais, director of community services, said he was unaware of that location, but would follow up with staff about maintaining it since it was on city property.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Sept. 8.
