After the city’s 80 kilometres of roadways were analyzed by digital eyes earlier this year, Trail council has awarded a $400,000 contract for pavement repairs to roll out in the coming months.
While there are nine locations selected for work this season, the majority of jobs are in West Trail, including the largest stretch of pavement being fixed.
“There are various treatments that will be provided depending on the section,” David Moorhead, ground and roads superintendent, told the Trail Times. “However, a majority of the work will be removal and replacement.”
Two bids for the job were submitted, but one was non-compliant, so the tender went to Selkirk Paving at the Monday governance meeting.
“The 2018 program was not executed as planned so it is important to proceed and get this work underway,” Chief Administrative Officer David Perehudoff advised. “This is seen to be a very important project further to the need to maintain many kilometers of paved service in the city.”
While specific streets haven’t been identified at this point, interestingly, those respective decisions were made using analytics gained by implementing a computer program that specifically targets road repairs.
“This software allows work to be completed on a non-biased basis, based on the condition of the road, rather than staff making the decision for repairs in a certain neighborhood,” Moorhead explained in his memo to council.
“This is in order to help staff disperse funds to certain roads within the city that are in need of repair; 2019 will be the first year that work will commence using the software to locate problem areas.”
How this software works, is it analyzes the condition of the city roads. And in doing so, sections are recommended for restoration contingent on the capital budget that is assigned for any given year.
The word restoration is used because not all work will include complete re-pavement.
“Various treatments will be applied in particular locations throughout the city,” said Moorhead. “The treatments are applied to prolong the life of a given road, without the need for removal and replacement. Those which are beyond any given treatment will be replaced with new asphalt.”
Notably, through a separate funding pool, Mountain View Cemetery is on the roster to have paving repairs totalling $31,200, completed this season.