If you’ve ever tripped over one of Moose Jaw’s 219 kilometres of sidewalks, then you should rejoice that city hall has a five-year plan to replace every sidewalk, curb and median.
The engineering services department completed a sidewalk condition assessment in 2019, which catalogued and prioritized deficiencies based on certain criteria. Those 10 criteria include longitudinal cracking, transverse cracking, heaving, dips, spalling, asphalt caps, vegetation, missing structures, or no issues. These aspects are then rated between one and 15.
The assessment recorded 6,538 deficiencies, with 1,926 problems rated at nine or higher, Bevan Harlton, director of engineering services, told city council during its 2021 budget deliberations on Dec. 16.
This year, complaints drove about 10 per cent of all sidewalk replacements. Meanwhile, the department gives the downtown area, schools, and areas with other community services top priority when reviewing recorded deficiencies.
In 2018 the engineering services department completed 140 sidewalk replacements, followed by 147 in 2019 and 120 this year. Harlton noted that if an average of 135 locations is completed every year, it would take about 15 years to replace the 1,926 deficiencies.
In 2021, the department plans to spend $558,000 on sidewalks, curbs, gutters, wheelchair ramps, slab jacking, slab slicing, and remediation; $561,200 in 2022; $578,500 in 2023, $602,700 in 2024; and $628,300 in 2025, for a total of $2.9 million.
It costs about $60,000 to complete 100 metres of sidewalk, while it costs around $150,000 to upgrade sidewalks that are almost 300 metres, Harlton said. These infrastructure items have a replacement value of $106 million, which results in an anticipated asset cycle of about 200 years.
“Sidewalks are definitely something that people notice … ,” said Coun. Heather Eby. “I know this is a low-on-the-totem-pole kind of project because we can do other things that seem more important, but I like the idea of looking at this in 2022 and beyond.
“People do notice sidewalks and they are trip hazards.”
The next budget meeting is Monday, Dec. 21 at 3 p.m.
