Saskatchewan weather can be hard on streets and roads, but city crews have been pushing back against nature and have filled nearly 2,000 potholes since the start of construction season.
With many roads in need of tender lovin’ care, Coun. Crystal Froese inquired during the June 12 regular council meeting about how many potholes city hall had filled to date.
Bevan Harlton, director of engineering, replied that city crews had filled 1,920 potholes throughout the community, prompting Froese to say this was turning into a record year.
“It’s an extensive line of work with no end,” Harlton added.
Coun. Dawn Luhning later introduced a motion asking administration to bring to the June 26 meeting a report to contract out filling potholes around the city, with that contracted work to begin immediately.
Sidewalk repairs
Coun. Doug Blanc said a resident approached him asking for city hall’s rationale for determining which sidewalks to replace first. The resident noted that while city crews are replacing sidewalks on Athabasca Street and elsewhere, his walkways are in worse shape.
Harlton explained that a deficiency ratings system directs the department’s sidewalk replacement program, while sometimes staff also combine sidewalk repairs with the paving and upgrading of roads — which is what they did this year with some areas.
The engineering director noted that city crews replaced the sidewalks on the 300 to 500 blocks of Athabasca Street West because they were deficient and had many trip hazards. Furthermore, combining the road and sidewalk repairs there allow city hall to improve drainage.
13th Avenue concerns
The municipality has had 13th Avenue between Gordon Road and Regal Crescent closed for more than two weeks for repairs, which prompted a resident to contact Luhning to express concerns about how long the upgrades were taking. Luhning wondered why it was taking so long to address this project.
Public works crews have been attempting to fix underground infrastructure in that area, specifically, a 450-millimetre feeder line that was never decommissioned when the area reservoir was eliminated, explained Harlton. However, there are no records available about what other services tie into that line, which is “odd.”
“We don’t connect services to feeder lines (anymore), but 60 (to) 85 years ago, they did,” he stated. “So a replacement occurred on the service line feeding Regal Park and it was confirmed that there was a leak on the adjacent service line also connecting into that feeder.”
There weren’t records of where those services were, while there also happens to be a gas line running parallel to that pipe, Harlton continued. This forced city hall to use a hydro-vac truck before it could start the work.
That feeder main should not be there, while it’s the fifth location on the feeder main replacement list because it has many services and is prone to leaking, he said. The problem is public works cannot isolate that line, while it’s also difficult to de-pressure a line that’s half a metre in diameter.
“It is unfortunate. It (also) offers many more challenges to public works than it should. But that is what that repair is now,” Harlton stated, adding 13th Avenue should be open soon.
Building demolition
Michelle Sanson, director of planning and development, provided an update on the demolition of the former Empire Apartments building on Caribou Street West.
She explained that the property owner was prepared to demolish the building and had a contractor lined up but realized neither SaskEnergy nor SaskPower had disconnected their services. City hall worked with the Crown corporations to make that happen, but the contractor left for another project.
Sanson added that the contractor expects to return by Monday, July 17, to demolish the building, while her department has implemented an order to ensure that happens.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, June 26.
